![]() And I know the importance of it and the value of it.Īnd I also know that I'm like. That's why I believe in it fully and intrinsically and through and through. And so that's why I think I am here in this space. It would've saved me a lot of heartache and pain to know that someone out there, to see someone queer out there being successful and being healthy and being their authentic selves and not facing repercussions for who they are. I would have really benefited from something like this as a kid. And I thought any one of those things made me a marker for being queer and gay. ![]() I mean, it was all of these things that had really inspired me as a kid to pull voices and make faces and be goofy and silly.Īnd then I lost a lot of that, even in my own self when I was coming out. It was Loony Tunes and Warner Brothers cartoons. And so I was trying to connect to that, and that's what drew me to wanting to be in these spaces was that those were the things that inspired me. I'm a big, big old kid in a 6'4", 44-year-old body. Not to be trite, but I'm rooted, I think, in kindness and rooted in. And I happen to be rooted in, I think, a lot of. I'm an everyman of drag in a sense, I really have a very strong point of view. And so when I went on Drag Race, I am a certain type of queen. ![]() And I just saw this as a natural evolution of my own drag career. I've done acts that were story times or drag brunches where families would be present. And so I had done a nightclub act, which is a very adult-oriented 18-and-over act that was specific for a nightclub. I've been doing drag for 22 years and creating content, writing live shows, and building productions for 18 years prior to my ever being on Drag Race. Let me take a step back because it's all kind of built on itself. So we filmed Drag Race, right? But I mean, when. WEST: That's a really great question because I had expressed my desire to do this prior. Pick a state, right? So I didn't know how pressing this would be, and I think there's a reason why it's happening the way it is. And I have to be honest with you, I would never have known three years later how important it would've been, how pressing it was to have a drag queen like myself write a kid's book and have it coming out during this time period where there's so much going on that directly affects LGBTQI+ people, drag artists, whether it be the "Don't Say Gay" bill or Idaho trying to put a bill into their legislature regarding drag performances and outlawing drag performances in Texas. And I think that that's where it really all started from. We finally got marriage equality in 2015, and they were building their own families here five years later. And I think it just only reiterated the importance of the work that I wanted to do, which was to be in a family space for a lot of my career, align myself with brands like Disney or with Nickelodeon, and do work that would be far-reaching for queer families, whether they be queer parents or parents of queer children.Īnd so The You Kind of Kind was born, and it was like a love letter to, I think, drag queens who are doing story times and queer parents who are reading aloud to their kids, who they had fought so hard for, be it their own biological children or adopted kids, specifically those queer parents in my own life who are friends of mine. And then I released that kid's album, and a lot of different things happened personally that were challenging for me to deal with and understand. WEST: So I had co-written a children's EP album in 2019 called "Drag is Magic." And already the space of traveling and being a drag artist during the Trump era, during his presidency was already a bitch. So this seems like a very organic progression for you, but what inspired you to write a children's book? It's so fun, my wife and I are super excited to read the book to our niece, and your whole artistry is very centered around kindness. COLLIDER: So first of all, I loved the book.
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