As Pride Month comes to a close, the Official Pride After Party Drag Show in Hilo drew supporters together on Saturday for one last celebration.
The Hilo Town Tavern was at capacity, with a line out the door. Backstage through crimson curtains, the drag queens prepared for the night's show.
"Right now, I’m putting on some body makeup, cover all the blemishes," said Hilo native Moses Lee, whose drag persona is Palehua, named after their favorite Hawaiian song.
"I named myself a Hawaiian name because I didn’t grow up in the culture. So I wanted to name myself something that would push me to learn more. To reconnect to my blood," Lee said.
Honolulu drag performer Hayzel Nuttz, who flew in for the performance, said drag shows give them freedom of expression and a sense of belonging.
"With māhū culture in general, that masculine-feminine mixture is just something we grow up with. I never liked being put in a box. So any performance that I do, I try to express that as much as possible. This allows me to not care about what other people think," Hayzel Nuttz said.
But performing in drag on the Big Island hasn’t been without its challenges, said Kona’s Cody Pease, whose drag persona is Tora Hamstring. Pease received violent threats while attempting to organize a drag show fundraiser for charity.
"I remember I had to shut it down because I was worried for the safety of the girls I was hiring, for the safety of the kids and people, I was like I’m not going to have anything happen. But due to that… I had queens from Kauaʻi, Maui and Oʻahu, everyone showed up and they’re like, 'If we gotta get on a plane and come over there, we will be there,'" Pease said.
Phill Russell, president of Hawaiʻi Island LGBTQ+ Pride, said proposals across the country to ban drag shows or censor performances ultimately restrict LGBTQ+ expression.
"It’s more important than ever to be visible out there, to show your pride, to show your true colors like we sang about earlier because other people are getting emboldened by all this hate going out. So it's a scary feeling like we're going backwards, but we're just going to imua," Russell said.
For Hilo drag performer Palehua, it’s the love and support of family that keeps this queen on stage.
"I have a lot of family members that don’t particularly like what I do, they don’t understand it. But they’re like that’s fine, that’s you. I’m not interested in it, but as long as it makes you happy, that’s all that matters. Just like how I feel about heterosexual people. I don’t get it, right? I have no interest. But I’m not … do you, do you," Palehua laughed.
