NEW YORK (AP) — Drag queen Patty Gonia strode across the stage in a sequined sleeveless top and floaty pink skirt and knee-length white high-heeled boots, telling the audience that nature must be female.
“She's trying to kill us in the most passive-aggressive way possible,” joked Gonia, who sports a neatly trimmed mustache, long black eyelashes and a long, flowing red wig. “It's not like there's an immediate fire or a flood or a cool explosion. She's just like, 'You know what? I just turned the temperature up a little.'”
“Are you feeling sick?” Gonia asked, before adding: “If you had put your recycling outside like I asked you to, I probably wouldn't have (turned up the heat)!”
Just as the audience began to laugh, a large screen above the stage flashed an image of a tweet from singer Britney Spears in 2011 asking the question, “Does anyone think global warming is a good thing?” Gonia pointed at the screen and began lip-syncing to Spears' song “Toxic.”
Now in its second year at New York Climate Week, the “Save Her! Environmental Drag Show” has become a popular attraction during the event, which also includes hundreds of panels, activities and meetings with scientists, activists, green energy executives, politicians and more.
The show aims to get the audience talking and laughing about climate change caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline and coal. The show also features absurdist elements such as changing the lyrics of Katy Perry's “Fireworks” to “Baby, you're a plastic bag” and Gonia pulling a plastic bag out of her chest. Drag queens and kings perform scenes that could be interpreted as metaphors for harming and protecting the planet, such as crashing cars and riding bikes, while dark statistics are projected on screen, such as how 20 large corporations are responsible for most of the greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and warming the planet.
While drag king Uncle Freak performs, an image of Smokey Bear appears overhead and there are public service announcements urging audiences to protect forests.
Standing well over six feet tall and imposing, Gonia combined her passion for the outdoors and environmentalism to create the show, which includes costumes made largely from recycled clothing, but it was a long, and sometimes arduous, journey to get there.
High heels become popular
Growing up in Nebraska, Gonia (whose real name is Win) grew up close to nature but struggled with his queer identity. After coming out, Win, who asked that his last name not be used due to concerns about his identity being exposed, said the acceptance he received from many of his friends and family meant that even if he was a gay man, he didn't have to act like one. That expectation was underscored when he cross-dressed for the first time at the end of a conference in 2018.
The experience was exhilarating, but it all quickly turned negative.
“There was a deafening silence from friends and family back home,” Wynn said in an interview.
After months of depression, Wynn, who now lives in Bend, Oregon, posted a video later that year of herself wearing high heels on a camping trip with friends along Colorado's Continental Divide.
“I woke up to find that a video I thought would only get 30 views had 3 million views,” Wynn said.
Patty Gonia was born.
Arts and Climate
“Save Her!” is part of a larger trend in art and popular culture that is increasingly grappling with climate change. Around the world, there are a multitude of art exhibitions, interactive museum displays and films that speak to environmental degradation, indigenous land management, forced migration and a host of other issues related to climate change. This is a far cry from 20 years ago, when environmentalist and author Bill McKibben wrote in a Grist op-ed that art is essential to fighting climate change.
“Where are the books? The poems? The plays?” McKibben writes.
Helen Clarkson, CEO of the Climate Group, which organizes New York Climate Week, said the annual gathering began in 2011 and focused primarily on climate as a business issue, but has evolved to include hundreds of diverse events, including poetry readings, plays and art exhibits.
“The creative industries are really important for connecting with people and bringing subjects to life,” Clarkson said. “What I don't want is for anyone to say, 'Does it end in hope or despair?'”
“Save Her!” wants audiences to go away with hope. For every negative highlight, the show seems to offer up a positive anecdote. For example, drag queen Nini Coco, dressed as a butterfly, guides the audience through the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, which migrates from Canada and the US to Mexico and back again. Climate change has caused a sharp decline in the monarch butterfly population.
Just like in real life, the butterfly dies in the show, but then ends with a rebirth, with the caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.
“We hear a lot about climate change, but this makes it feel more real, more tangible,” said Heath Koch, a 27-year-old product designer who attended Tuesday night's show.
Criticism of the climate change movement
The desire to inspire doesn't mean Gonia is prepared to tolerate many environmental activists.
“The climate movement needs reform,” Gonia said, arguing that many of the events at New York Climate Week and other large climate change conferences are exclusive and not inclusive. Many are not open to the public, and those that are open don't represent diverse voices, he said.
“People in the climate community think of themselves as nice, liberal, open-minded, tolerant people, and sometimes we sit at the table of the meanest girl I've ever sat at,” Gonia said.
But Gonia also finds some allies within the mainstream climate change movement.
As part of a paid promotion earlier this year, Gonia created a powerful video about misconceptions about planned burns — the deliberate burning of parts of forests as part of land management. Dressed in red and black flame-like gowns, she and The Nature Conservancy's state fire marshal stood in the middle of the forest in a funny and educational scene, humorously poking fun at people who don't accept or want to get involved in planned burns at all.
The video has garnered 210,000 likes, over 1,700 comments and more than 14,000 shares across Instagram and TikTok, quickly becoming The Nature Conservancy's second highest performing video on Instagram.
“That's why we love working with influencers like Patti because she's a master of what she does,” said Todd Metrokin, the nonprofit's director of brand strategy.
Gonia said ultimately, she and the other performers are communicators who can bring more people into the conversation about climate change.
“We cut through the noise that a 100-employee company can't cut through,” Gonia said.
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Peterson reported from Denver.
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