Pattie Gonia: The drag queen breaking new ground in the name of queer climate justice

It’s October and we’re well and truly into spooky season, but whilst many will be kept up late by zombies, vampires and ghosts, a drag queen from Nebraska has an even scarier nightmare on her mind. 

Pattie Gonia has made a name for herself by fostering a community of over 1,000,000 queer environmentalists. Six years ago, she went viral for click-clacking her heels along a mountaintop trail. This internet fame helped her discover a unique intersection between the fight for both queer and climate justice – a marriage of her two great passions. At a time when extreme climate events, like the recent hurricanes Helene and Milton, are leaving swathes of the US devastated, and anti-drag bills are being proposed across the nation, Patti fights for the protection of natural spaces for all, championing the need for the climate movement to be inclusive to all.  

It’s a wonderful, dazzling example of how drag can provide not only a bold look, but also a poignant message and centre itself at the forefront of political activism.

Founder of the Outdoorist Oath, a charity encouraging BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people to explore the outdoors through community and education, Pattie and her community have collectively raised over $1.5 million dollars for her cause. She is a prime example of how art may be used to inspire people to make a difference. She seamlessly weaves the political roots of drag into her climate activism, describing to TIME Magazine how “Drag’s history has always been activism… I’m just trying to use my art and fight for what I love.” Patti’s drag is a big, bold, gender-bending, sustainable spectacle, involving recycling fabric, wigs and accessories, and complete with her signature moustache. In 2022, challenging herself to find the scariest Halloween costume, Pattie set her sights on designing an outfit that would represent the horror of the climate crisis. The result was an exceptionally crafted, eye-catching, 100% sustainable fish-tail dress, made from fabric scraps depicting melting ice caps, choking birds, an oil rig, and of course – Taylor Swift’s private jet. It’s a wonderful, dazzling example of how drag can provide not only a bold look, but also a poignant message and centre itself at the forefront of political activism.  

More recently in September this year, Patti took over New York Climate Week with her all-singing, all-dancing, environmental-themed drag show, Save Her! The aim of the show was to spread awareness of environmentalism through entertainment, and in a show packed full of joy, laughter and education, it certainly did just that. Performers and audience members alike were challenged to come dressed in their most glamorous, sustainable looks for the event, fittingly around the theme of Mother Nature’s Disco. There were lip-syncing butterflies lamenting about their 1,000-mile migration, saucy stripteases to Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” with a backdrop of recent forest fires, and a rendition of “Firework” by Katy Perry made up solely of the song’s first line: “Do you ever feel, like a plastic bag…”  

You can lose people’s attention pretty easily when you talk about climate change, because who wants to hear the same thing all of the time? This is something different and will be really interesting and fun.

–Saige Middleton, Attendee of Save Her!

The show was also not afraid to launch scathing criticism at the billionaires and cooperations that profit from the climate emergency. Patti blasted out a powerful ballad of resistance and struggle against these profiteers, whilst also delivering a sizzling lip-sync, titled “Big Oil Criminals”, to Sam Smith’s “Unholy”, dressed in high-fashion corporate attire, as the faces of big oil were projected onto the screen under the headline: “These are the men who are killing us.” These numbers ranged from ridiculously camp, to more sombre and stripped back, complimenting each other nicely to provide the light and shade necessary to both entertain and educate on such a serious and pressing issue. An attendee of the event, Saige Middleton describes, “You can lose people’s attention pretty easily when you talk about climate change, because who wants to hear the same thing all of the time? This is something different and will be really interesting and fun.”  

In her drag, charity work, and way of life, Patti Gonia represents something we can all aspire to be, authentic to ourselves and to our passions. As she says, “I think we need every single person to apply their skills, who they are and their identity, to what they’re good at in this world.” She teaches us to not only love and respect the environment we live in, but to also respect those around us to promote a kinder and more inclusive world. She truly embraces the mantra of ‘be kind’, whether that be to the earth, others, or indeed, ourselves.