a curated collection of my published writings

Women in Drag

Curve Magazine

I was a newly out lesbian when I saw my first drag queen at age sixteen. Her name was Aaron Davis and she was bucking the house down in her big blonde Texas pageant hair, doing backhand springs in six-inch stilettos. I knew right then and there that was what I wanted to do—and I’ve dedicated the last 23 years of my life making my sixteen-year-old dream come true. But I’m just one of the many cis- gender women who have been doing drag longer than RuPaul’s Drag Race fans have been “drag” lovers.

When I was first coming out of the queen closet, I found the term “faux queen” buried in a Wikipedia article about drag queens. I clicked on the link and my world as I knew it blew up; I was home. [READ MORE]

ON MARRIAGE, BEING GAY AND ASKING YOUR BORN-AGAIN PARENTS FOR THEIR BLESSING

Dallas Voice

I was never the kind of girl who daydreamed about her perfect wedding day — the perfect white dress, the perfect location . . . the perfect man. Hell, I wasn’t even the kind of girl who thought about getting married period. Marriage was an antiquated tradition that I never wanted to be a part of.

If I thought about marriage at all, it was only to contemplate what it would feel like to love someone so much that you willingly want to devote your entire being — your entire life — to that one person. I had never loved someone that much and wasn’t even sure if I believed that kind of love existed. [READ MORE]

Dear susan sarandon: hope you’re happy that your protest vote put my rights at risk

Global Grind

Now that Trump is self-destructing, I feel even those in swing states have the opportunity to vote their conscience. — Susan Sarandon

You were wrong.

You were dead f-ing wrong. And in a way, we all were. None of us saw this coming. None of us believed that a man with bankruptcies, no job experience, and no resume could possibly defeat a woman who not only had all the credentials (and then some) but had given her life to this country and to the ALL the people in it before she even applied for the job. [READ MORE]

THANK YOU, RUPAUL, for telling straight girls at gay clubs to ‘check’ themselves

Cassius Life

When RuPaul said “Check yourself before your wreck yourself” after being asked his opinion about bachelorette parties at gay bars on The Dinner Party Download podcast, many of us in the LGBTQ community applauded him for saying something that we, at one time or another, have thought ourselves. But heterosexual women weren’t so amused. And many of them expressed that the main reason they go to gay bars is because it’s safe — and the only place they don’t get groped or hit on by heterosexual men.

But RuPaul wasn’t necessarily referring to the one or two straight women on the dance floor any given Friday or Saturday night. He was referring to the gaggle of loud and obnoxious women with their blinking sashes and penis pops, who bust through the doors of our bars like they own it and we owe them something. Who scream from the audience at the drag queens on stage yelling “I’M GETTING MARRIED!!” or worse scream-talking and disrespecting the performer onstage. Those are the straight girls RuPaul was referring to. [READ MORE]

Shaken & Stirred: How three dallas bartendars changed the face of the strip

Dallas Voice

Pride is a time when we celebrate our diversity out loud and proud. But it is also a time when we take a deeper look at the challenges we as a community have faced and overcome, the barriers we’ve broken down, and the glass ceilings we have busted through and pay homage to people who have paved the way for our generation to have it just a little bit easier than the ones before.

Chances are if you’ve been in a gay bar on or off the strip you’ve seen the familiar faces of three of Dallas’ nightlife staples, Jasper, Sassy, and Candace. In fact, if you’ve walked into a bar anytime in the last twenty-years, you’ve probably been served by one (or all) of them without any idea of the history and courage it took for them to get there. [READ MORE]

From Queen to Queer: The evolution of drag in dallas

Dallas Voice

Villa Fontana, Dallas’ first gay bar, opened in the 1950s. The laws in Dallas back then prohibited cross-dressing but that didn’t stop Dallas queens. Tammye Nash, the managing editor of the Dallas Voice, recounts a story from her friend Joe Elliot: Every man had to wear some item of “male” clothing. Drag queens and trans women always made sure to have men’s underwear on under their dresses.

Drag (and Dallas) has changed A LOT since then.

Bars like The Landing, the Blue Parrot, Illusions, Buddies, Anchor Inn and Hartfords — the place for comedy drag and boy strippers in the 1980s — that featured drag shows have come and gone. The Old Plantation of the ’80s became the Village Station of the ’80s and ’90s and the S4 of the 2000s. [READ MORE]