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There For Those In Need

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Captain Michael Bender, who became Richmond Police Department’s new LGBTQ Liaison in August, wants to ensure that Richmond’s LGBTQ community feels welcomed and included throughout the city.

In June 1969, police raided Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, sparking two nights of rioting that have gone down in history as a catalyst of the gay rights movement. Today, half a century later, it’s not uncommon to encounter anti-police sentiments among members of the LGBTQ community. “No cops at Pride” becomes a mantra each June for those aware of the long history of injustices committed against the LGBTQ community by police.

In hopes of building a stronger, healthier relationship with the community, the Richmond Police Department established an LGBTQ liaison officer position in 2013. This past August, Captain Michael Bender took over as RPD’s LGBTQ liaison officer, replacing Captain Dan Minton, who had held the position since 2016.

Bender, who has been with RPD for almost 25 years, said that a big part of his responsibilities as LGBTQ Liaison is being available to the community. “A liaison role is about accessibility,” he said. “Who do you go to talk to if you have an issue?”

This falls in line with precedents that past liaisons have set. In 2017, Richmond police investigated an incident in which an individual spray-painted the words “Gay Move Die” on the side of a car as a hate crime. Capt. Minton, LGBTQ liaison at the time, was actively involved in communicating updates about the investigation to members of the LGBTQ community.

Bender says that it is important for him to help out the LGBTQ community in Richmond, because everyone should feel welcome in the community as a whole.

“One of the big things I always tell officers is ‘how would you want your family treated … if they encountered the police?’” Bender said. “If you can make somebody feel welcome and feel accepted, then they’re part of the community. And that’s what we want for everybody in the city. It’s not just certain groups or certain people that we want to be in the community, we want everybody to feel a fabric of Richmond because it’s a great city.”

Richmond Police Chief William Smith, Capt. Bender, and other members of local law enforcement agencies at VA PrideFest 2019. Photo by Christopher Brown

While Bender had never attended a Pride festival prior to becoming LGBTQ liaison, this year’s VA PrideFest, which occurred on September 28, was his first. Bender hoped to use the event as an opportunity to make his face known to the community and as a way to build trust.

“It’s just about changing people’s perceptions and talking to people like they’re people,” Bender said. “I mean, we’re all people. So there’s no difference, as far as I’m concerned, just because I’m wearing a uniform.”

It’s probably comes as no surprise that Bender disagrees with the notion of “no cops at Pride.”

“In this day and age, having an event where you have over 20 to 30,000 people, it’s a public safety issue if you don’t have some law enforcement presence,” he said. “Speaking to the president of [VA Pride, James Millner], he is very adamant that having uniformed officers there is imperative for everybody’s safety.”

Bender has only served as LGBTQ liaison officer for around two months now. He says that he has had conversations with his predecessor about how to best handle the responsibilities of the position, and seeks to continue the improvements he has seen the Richmond Police Department has made since he joined their ranks in 1995.

“It’s a new position and it’s an unknown,” he said. “I’m just hoping I can do a good job and be there when somebody needs me.”

Top Photo courtesy Richmond Police

Children Are The Future: VA Pride Firework Award Honoree Ted Lewis Provides Crucial Support For VA’s LGBTQ Youth

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Our 2019 Fall Pride Guide, in collaboration with VA Pride, is out now! In this article from the magazine, we learn more about this year’s VA Pride Firework honoree, Side By Side Executive Director Ted Lewis.

You might know this year’s VA Pride Firework Award honoree, Ted Lewis, from their work as Executive Director for Side By Side: Richmond’s long-running center for Virginia’s LGBTQ youth. You might know them from their work establishing the LGBTQ Campus Life program at the University of Richmond, or for their locally-focused activism on a variety of issues at the intersection of race, gender, and identity.

But for Lewis, their connection to advocacy goes back much further than that, all the way to their childhood. “I grew up in a family where we talked about identity, politics, race, and difference on a daily basis at the dinner table,” they said. “It definitely informed my activism and my understanding of the world.”

Coming from a multiracial family — Lewis’s stepfather, who raised them, is African-American — made a huge difference in how they grew up. But their discovery of the field of women’s and gender studies in college was just as important.

“I identify as non-binary and genderqueer, and didn’t really learn about those terms until I started studying feminist and womanist scholars,” said Lewis, who uses they/them pronouns. “I finally felt like there was language to define what I was, that I had never known existed until I was in college.”

Lewis arrived in Richmond in 2012, when they accepted a position as University of Richmond’s Associate Director for LGBTQ Campus Life — a position they were the first person to hold. But this wasn’t their first time inaugurating an LGBTQ-specific role at a university. “I came to UR from UNC-Charlotte, where I was the first Assistant Director For Sexual/Gender Diversity,” they said. “So I had experience being the first person to hold a position.”

And fortunately, they found a strong LGBTQ community waiting for them when they arrived. “At UR, there was a large number of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and administrators who had already been doing LGBTQ work,” they said. “So really, it was stepping in to help coordinate those efforts and give them a little more support and direction. To be quite honest, at UR it didn’t feel like I was the first, because there had been so much work done over the years prior to me ever stepping foot on campus. While I was in a leadership position, none of the progress that I’ve ever been a part of has been solely because of me. There were tons of people working on this.”

Lewis during their time at University Of Richmond (via Richmond.edu)

This is the sort of fact that many Richmond residents might be surprised to learn about University of Richmond, which has a long history of holding itself somewhat separate from the city around it. “It has a rather conservative history as an institution,” Lewis agreed. “It was Catholic-affiliated for a long time, and still has a chaplain on campus. So that made it sometimes difficult to push the university to change. On the flipside of that, it was a private institution, so change could move significantly quicker; it’s not as if I had to get approval from the General Assembly or the Governors’ office.”

Lewis is proud of the progress UR has made as an LGBTQ-inclusive campus over the past seven years, both under their own leadership and under that of Lee Dyer, who succeeded Lewis in the position in 2017. “What I was most excited about was, in particular, the way the institution has shifted, and continues to shift,” they said. “Particularly for transgender and non-binary students. UR has a coordinate college system, which means they have a men’s college and a women’s college under the University of Richmond banner. I was there when the first student who started in the women’s college graduated in the men’s college, was able to transition on campus, be accepted, and get a diploma with his chosen name, before it had been legally changed — things that I think a lot of times cisgender students don’t think about, because they never have to navigate.”

They pointed out that, even years after they left, UR still continues to make positive changes, the roots of which trace back to their time at the campus. “The institution as a whole is still trying to get out of the UR bubble, and be more invested and involved in the city,” they said. “So it’s really powerful for me to see that this year, UR is hosting Equality Virginia’s Transgender Information and Empowerment Summit (TIES). Even though that hosting is happening long after I left, it’s astounding to think about how, when I [arrived] in 2012, that [might not] have been able to happen.”

After four years at UR, Lewis accepted the position of Executive Director for Side By Side in 2016 — at a time when the LGBTQ youth support and advocacy organization was still known by its original name, ROSMY. However, the name change was already in the works when Lewis arrived. “My first meeting with board is when they told me they had already selected the new identity, and were asking me to shepherd the change,” Lewis said.

Side By Side has grown in many ways since Lewis’s arrival three years ago. “We have doubled our operating budget; we have more than doubled the staff,” they said. “Last fiscal year, we served nearly 450 unique youth with support groups, so we’re seeing a really tremendous growth.”

However, growth alone was not Lewis’s goal when they arrived at Side By Side; they wanted to make sure that the group’s efforts were as effective as possible. “One of my hopes when I came into the role was to evaluate how we serve LGBTQ youth in our community that are in the most need,” they said. “In order to do that, we needed to start looking intersectionally.”

Under Lewis’s direction, Intersectionality — an approach to social justice that evaluates the ways in which various types of discrimination overlap, and can contribute to greater oppression in certain groups — became a core aspect of Side By Side’s work. “When I started at Side by Side, there was only one staff member who was a person of color,” Lewis said. “Not that the organization had never engaged in race conversations, but I don’t think there was an intention around looking at the needs of youth of color, and specifically black LGBTQ youth.”

This realization led Side By Side to seek out partnerships not only with LGBTQ organizations led by people of color, such as Nationz Foundation, Virginia Anti-Violence Project, and Black Pride, but also with organizations that focused on work in minority communities, but weren’t specifically LGBTQ, including Art 180 and RISE For Youth. “We’ve been intentional about trying to be more intersectional, specifically around race,” said Lewis. “This is Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. This is the South. You can’t, in my opinion, do intersectional work without centering race in that conversation. While other identities are certainly important, race trumps a lot of that in the South.”

Ted Lewis. Photo by Colorful Richmond

Side By Side has also focused on diversity training for various organizations and businesses that work with LGBTQ youth. Beginning the program with local public school districts, they have taken it in a variety of directions, both geographically and demographically. “We’ve been working primarily in schools, not just in Central Virginia — we’re in Stafford County, training their leadership as they’ve been in the news, in particular, with some issues with transgender students,” said Lewis.

They explain that Side By Side has also worked with over 400 mental and behavioral health providers around the state, and have given diversity training programs for corporations like Capital One and Altria, as well as local restaurants and a variety of businesses in the hospitality industry. The training programs are in high demand, said Lewis. “We continue to get more and more requests, everyone from local roller derby teams to the hospital to the county government, on how they can be more inclusive of the community.” 

The next step for Side By Side, according to Lewis, is a move toward advocacy for change in policies on local and state levels. Their work was instrumental in getting Richmond Public Schools to adopt an LGBTQ-inclusive student code of responsibility earlier this year, and they hope to leverage that progress into more LGBTQ inclusiveness in schools throughout the state. “Our hope is to work with RPS this school year to develop inclusive policies that can get passed by the school board, that we can take across Virginia to other districts and other counties,” said Lewis, “and try to make schools more accepting.” 

At this point, Lewis just hopes they can keep up with the progress they’ve been making. “We’ve been very busy,” they said. “My hope, for both myself and Side by Side, is that we can continue to keep pace with our tremendous growth. We are trying to take some bigger swings, if you will, to affect the lives of more young people, not just the ones that are able to make it into the doors of Side By Side.” 

In light of all this, it’s no surprise that VA Pride selected Lewis for this year’s Firework Award. “The award is given to people who are catalysts for change in this community, and we could think of no other person that has done more to change the community for the better, especially for LGBTQ youth,” said VA Pride President James Millner. “Ted is a tremendous role model for so many youths in this community, and we couldn’t be happier that we have the opportunity to recognize them for what they do.” 

“I’m really honored by this recognition, and the fellow Firework Award winners are folks that I really admire, so I’m grateful,” said Lewis. “[I] view the award as a recognition of the work that I’ve done, but I also view it as a recognition of the work of Side By Side, and the whole team that we have. So I’m grateful for the community that is willing to step up and work together, in really beautiful ways.”

Top Photo courtesy Ted Lewis

Pride Was “Hot & Sweaty,” But Not In the Way I Imagined

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“My first time attending VA PrideFest ended with me being 10 pounds lighter,” writes GayRVA contributor Christopher Brown.

Richmond’s annual VA PrideFest doesn’t happen in June, like many Pride festivals across the nation. It instead takes place in late September, and you would think that’s a good idea, for a few reasons. 

First, with LGBTQ Pride month being in June, some of the major pride festivals like Washington D.C., New York, Norfolk and Philadelphia happen, and that could cause some competition that might hurt a smaller city like Richmond. Second, here in the South, the weather in June is usually not the coolest. According to U.S. climate data, the average temperature in Richmond, Virginia during June is 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The last time the September average reach that high was in 2010 — the current average is 81 degrees.

These all seem like valid reasons to host Richmond’s Pride in September. Unfortunately, last Saturday still felt like June. The high temperature that day was 93 degrees, with the heat index reaching almost 100 degrees. According to Dominque Green, a VA PrideFest attendee, the weather was “homophobic, biphobic, and anti-black.”

I had to agree with her on that one, because the weather was unbearable! People were carrying water bottles, sitting in shaded areas around Brown’s Island, and had fans — either hand fans that said something “campy” like “Make America Cum Again,” or church fans that free from came from the T-Mobile booth. Even the dogs were getting hot, panting under the endless sun. 

Geneva Poelker, a regular attendee of VA PrideFest, said he was shocked when one of the food vendors he went to ran out of water bottles to sell. Vendors couldn’t even give out ice for scorching guests.

Weather-related complaints aside, though, my first time going to an LGBTQ Pride festival was a very interesting and enjoyable experience. Different vendors and sponsors like SunTrust and T-Mobile were out there handing out free stuff like pride flags, pins, stickers, and beads. Local Richmond organizations like Diversity Richmond, Side by Side, and Equality Virginia were also out there giving out free stuff, as well as teaching visitors about their organization and how they help the LGBTQ population in the city and throughout the state.

Richmond’s Mayor, Levar Stoney, along with 72nd District Delegate Schuyler VanValkenburg, Congressional Representative Abigail Spanberger, and Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras showed up in support. Stoney even made reference in his speech to a recent CNS article published by GayRVA, which focused on the city’s efforts to ban conversion therapy.

Attending PrideFest this year was an eye-opener for me. Seeing people wear their respective pride flags like capes, and dressed up in the campiest of ways, I didn’t feel like an outsider, though two or three years ago I would’ve. Before I came out as bisexual, I never felt inclined to go to something like Pride. Going to LGBTQ-related events or businesses like Pride festivals or gay bars felt outside my comfort zone; I wasn’t even comfortable with myself. Last Saturday changed that for me.

For those who haven’t attend VA PrideFest, I highly recommend going next year. However, you’ll need to remember a few things to survive the event. Here are a few tips for you first-timers:

  • BRING WATER! Save the alcohol for the nighttime events.
  • It’s not a food festival like the RVA Veg Fest or the Watermelon festival; while there are food vendors, I would eat something prior, then get something light, like a snack, once you get to the festival. 
  • Bring a small bag with you for all the free stuff you’ll be getting.
  • Don’t go alone! Bring your friends, your family, or your fur-baby. VA PrideFest is a free, inclusive event.

The final tip is to be yourself. 50 years ago, the LGBTQ community had to fight for the ability to be themselves in public spaces. That fight continues; however, today the community can party and fight at the same time.

Here are some of the sights of this year’s VA PrideFest:

All Photos by Christopher Brown

ANIMAL Celebrates Pride With A (Go! Pop!) Bang! At The Dark Room

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The celebrated queer dance party, ANIMAL, returns to The Dark Room with a post-PrideFest throwdown featuring Baltimore club star Rye Rye.

If you’re planning to leave the house at all tomorrow, we expect to see you at Brown’s Island. The park island on the James River is playing host to the 2019 VA PrideFest throughout the day this Saturday — not that you need us to tell you that. However, that’s not all that’s going on, so you’re going to want to save your energy. Because after Betty Who leaves the stage and things shut down on Brown’s Island, it’s time to head over to The Hof’s Dark Room and dance the night away with ANIMAL!

You know ANIMAL — for the last seven years, it’s been Richmond’s premier traveling queer dance party. From past haunts like Babe’s, Strange Matter, and Fallout to its current home in the Dark Room, ANIMAL has been keeping Richmond’s LGBTQ community moving its feet to sounds spun by founder Conley Thurston Billings, aka DJ Dirt Thurston, and a series of turntable-rocking allies.

But at this special 2019 Pride Edition, ANIMAL’s kicking things up a notch with a special guest — none other than celebrated Baltimore club musician Rye Rye. And Billings is very excited to have Rye Rye in town for this performance. “Over the years we’ve had guest DJs, artists, and bands,” he said. “But it’s been a while since we’ve had such a big artist.”

Billings is definitely a fan. “I have always LOVED Rye Rye’s music and any track she’s featured on,” he said. “I’m always checking to see if she has anything new released.”

That’s been a somewhat difficult search in recent years. Making a splash in both the music and film worlds in 2012 by acting in 21 Jump Street and releasing her debut album, Go! Pop! Bang! on MIA’s label NEET Records in the same year, Rye Rye’s career has slowed down in recent years. But when he was looking to make a big impact with this year’s Pride Edition of ANIMAL, Billings’ thoughts turned toward her nonetheless.

“I knew I wanted to do something special for Pride and I wanted to do something that people could appreciate even after the party,” he said. “I follow [Rye Rye] on Instagram and one day decided to message her and ask her how we could get her to perform at ANIMAL. It was somewhat of a long shot, since I feel like she’s been on the DL as far as touring/doing gigs goes, focusing more so on her family life. Still, I figured I didn’t have anything to lose by asking.”

Billings was blown away to receive a positive response. “I can’t tell you how excited — and also nervous — I was when I saw the little response icon on my phone,” he said. “She sent me her email contact and after that I knew I had to try my hardest to really make this happen.”

Photo courtesy Joseph Whitfield/ANIMAL

Sure enough, it’s happening, and everyone who shows up at ANIMAL this Saturday night is going to be in for a treat. This definitely includes Billings, who is over the moon about Rye Rye’s performance. When asked what else folks could look forward to with Saturday night’s edition of ANIMAL, he just went right back to the star attraction.

“Honestly, Rye Rye. I never thought I’d have the opportunity to see her, let alone provide an opportunity for the community to see her,” he said. “And in such an intimate venue! This is going to be an inclusive but exclusive party — exclusive because the capacity is very low, inclusive because that’s how we roll.”

Of course, as he mentioned above, Billings and ANIMAL are always working to achieve the most inclusive dance party environment possible, taking a specific stand against intolerance of any kind on all their event promotion. “Sexism. Misogyny. Racism. Transphobia. Homophobia. And general hatefulness are never welcome,” reads a statement on the facebook event page for Saturday night’s party at The Dark Room. “Respect differences. Always practice consent. If a situation arises that makes you feel unsafe or you witness something that compromises the wellbeing of others, don’t hesitate to alert an organizer.”

ANIMAL’s emphasis on inclusion has been part of what has led them to appear in so many venues over the years. “Animal has always rotated venues throughout the city, keeping our parties diverse/accessible while not catering to one specific area,” said Billings. “Fortunately, there are multiple collectives now along with venues themselves working towards inclusive and safer spaces so we are not alone on this front.”

Their current home at the Dark Room is sure to be jumping tomorrow night. Doors open at 9 PM, with the music and dancing kicking off at 10, and ANIMAL staff encourage early arrival to be sure you can get in the door. “Space for this show is very limited,” reads a statement on the facebook event page. “We’re capping [capacity] at 100 so people will have room to DANCE!!”

You can avoid any worries about making it before it sells out by purchasing an advance ticket for $10 through Eventbrite. But whether you buy a ticket or just head straight over after PrideFest, you’re going to want to be there. This will be a night to remember. As Dirt Thurston told us: “Expect high raw fluid energy and lots of dancing!!!”

The Dark Room is located inside the Hofheimer Building at 2818 W. Broad St in Scott’s Addition. Doors open for ANIMAL’s special Pride Edition at 9 PM on Saturday, September 28.

Written by Marilyn Drew Necci and Christopher Brown III. Top photo by Wes McQuillen, courtesy ANIMAL

The Freedom of Drag: Ongina’s Charismatic Evolution

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Our 2019 Fall Pride Guide, in collaboration with VA Pride, comes out at PrideFest Saturday! In this article from the magazine, we talk to RuPaul’s Drag Race star Ongina, who will appear onstage at VA PrideFest this weekend!

Small in stature and bursting with star power, RuPaul’s Drag Race standout Ongina will take the stage with pride at the 2019 VA PrideFest.

Ongina, the stage name of Ryan Ong Palao, appeared on the first season of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2009, skyrocketing her career and solidifying her status as a bona fide drag legend. She instantly set herself apart with her inventive, avant-garde fashion and the resilient positivity that she has come to symbolize.

“Ongina is very inspired by fashion and art,” said Ongina. “I normally use my bald head as a canvas for headpieces. Sometimes I’ll wear wigs, but no hair at all is kind of my trademark as a drag queen.”

Ongina’s resistance towards boxing herself into a specific style of drag is what keeps her moving forward, unbeholden to branding or expectation. Every look she turns out aims to surprise and inspire, and even after decades in the drag spotlight, she never fails to impress.

Ongina began experimenting with drag in 2001 by creating genderbending club-kid looks inspired by her immersion in raver culture while growing up in Seattle. It wasn’t until 2005, after she had moved to New York City and was working at the drag queen cabaret restaurant Lucky Cheng’s that she began doing female illusion.

“Now I’ve evolved to more of a full-fledged drag queen,” Ongina said. “But I’m always trying not to lose too much of my originality; where I’ve come from, how I’ve grown, and what my life has seen, traveled through, and become.”

The evolution of Ongina is evident; she is constantly moving forward, managing a drag career for over a decade without ever stagnating or losing the excitement that originally drew her to drag.

“I always try to challenge myself to elevate my drag and my persona by constantly trying different things and not being afraid of the risks I want to take,” she said. “I always want to do something different, to think outside the box.”

Ongina radiates charisma and stage presence, but making a career out of performing was never something she aspired to until she was launched into the public eye after her appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race.

“I had a really successful career as a visual merchandiser, creating visual aesthetics in retail spaces. Then, I wanted to be an interior designer,” she said. “Drag was something I always did alongside those other things and now, it has evolved into something bigger and more of a business.”

While it has become her career in recent years, Ongina has never lost sight of the joy that brought her to drag in the first place.

“It’s something that I do truly enjoy doing, so it hasn’t felt like a responsibility to stay alive and pay my bills. I find it to still be artistic and fun,” she said. “Drag, for me, is an evolution of inspirations in my head that come from fashion, art, and pop culture. I’m able to translate that into my drag persona in a visual way, and that’s what’s so exciting to me. Drag can be anything; it changes and challenges. I love every aspect of that because I get to create, and creating is what I love to do.”

Each look Ongina crafts is bursting with innovation and artistry. Pulling from haute couture, visual art, and even interior design, the blending of inspiration and reference points ensure that Ongina’s drag is always new and individual.

“Being such a visual person and loving fashion was my first inspiration, it’s what drew me to drag. And second was the freedom I feel when I’m in drag and performing,” she said. “It’s an incredible feeling. It’s such an outlet.”

Her performance style, like her personality, is equal parts bubbly and edgy, effortlessly dancing through energetic choreography and flirtatiously sauntering across the stage, smiling at the cheering crowd.

“I get nervous. I get excited. I get a rush. I get exhausted. I get fulfilled,” she said. “Performing is one of the best feelings, when you are on stage and the audience loves you back. If I love my fans and if they love me back, that means I’m doing something right for them.”

Now, she is bringing drag into the forefront of her life, choosing to focus on drag as a full-time job. Turning a passion into a business can be tricky; it leaves space for stagnation and detachment. But Ongina takes these challenges on, headpieces first, by always keeping her eye on what’s next. She cites her love of performing to the newest radio hits as one of the ways she focuses on staying on trend… but with a twist that keeps true to her individualism.

“I try to stay relevant by reimagining some of the visual aspects of what I present on social media and in my life,” Ongina said. “Top 40’s gives me so much inspiration for my drag, to keep it new, fresh, and culturally relevant. I love Top 40’s, anything super fun and high energy. I like to believe I can dance, that I have rhythm. I know I’ll never be a pop princess, so that’s what I emulate on stage.”

Given the breakneck speed of the social media world, relevance is everything. Drag is quickly moving from the underground into the mainstream, and with Drag Race’s ever-growing audience, queens have more opportunities and bigger fan bases than ever before.

“Drag used to be taboo, and it used to be something people didn’t fully understand or accept,” Ongina said. “Now that it’s at the forefront of pop culture and social media, the audience is so much bigger, and they’re starting to understand more of what drag is.”

As drag, and Drag Race, grows in popularity, she works in equal measure to grow her audience and appeal to those new to the world of drag, while still keeping true to herself and the aesthetic that propelled her career when she first appeared on the show.

RuPaul’s Drag Race premiered on February 2, 2009, marking Ongina’s television debut. Though only appearing in five competitive episodes of the season, she quickly became a fan favorite for her avant-garde runway looks and strong performances in weekly challenges.

“Competing in season one of RuPaul’s Drag Race definitely opened my eyes to what my drag career could become,” said Ongina. “Coming into the competition and seeing the likes of Shannel, Nina Flowers, Tammy Brown — it gave the perspective for me that drag is truly so multidimensional. It’s not one thing or the other.”

“That really helped in creating Ongina now,” she continued. “I’m able to adopt that mentality and show people my versatility and the dimensions of drag that I can offer.”

It’s that adaptability and welcoming of change that has made Ongina so exciting to watch. On Drag Race, she demonstrated that she was ready to rise to any occasion and exceed all expectations while doing it. Experimental and endlessly watchable, her time on the show was enough to cement her drag legacy forever.

A defining moment from season one was Ongina speaking out about being HIV positive. In episode four, the queens filmed commercials for Mac Viva Glam, a makeup line that collaborated with RuPaul to create a campaign giving all of the lipstick’s proceeds to funds helping those living with HIV and AIDS. After winning the episode with a whimsical and uplifting commercial, Ongina tearfully revealed her HIV positive status, making for one of the most memorable and emotional points in the history of the show.

Her message of celebrating life spoke to viewers around the world and launched her into a role of advocacy for HIV awareness.

“Coming out as being HIV positive has given me an amazing platform to be somewhat of an accidental activist for HIV and AIDS,” said Ongina. “It’s something I took on and am proud of doing.”

Taking on a more active role in HIV/AIDS awareness and advocacy was something she found much easier once she had come out about her own status.

“Because of what happened on my season and coming out, it has helped me to be more open and talk more about the virus,” she said. “At that time in my life, in 2008, there wasn’t a lot of exposure and conversation surrounding HIV and AIDS. Being that I was given this platform, I’m happy to speak on it so I can continue to inspire people. Life truly is a celebration, no matter what unfortunate circumstances come into your life. I think that’s the message I convey in my drag… immersing yourself in what is good in your life, and really celebrating that.”

The joy that Ongina emanates and encourages is palpable. That joy is in her outfits, where artistry and boundlessness create looks full of excitement and love of the craft. That joy is in her smile mid-performance as she shares herself on stage. That joy is in each audience member, new or years-long, invited to join in on the celebration of life that Ongina embodies.

Future-focused as ever, Ongina has no plans of slowing down. She has so much more to give, to design, to say, and to explore.

“Now that I am somewhat of a TV personality and working as a drag queen, I aspire to continue working until someone tells me it’s over,” Ongina said. “I’m going to continue working, continue evolving and learning, and challenge myself, so I can showcase the best of me and what I want to give. That’s the goal — to continue to do what I love. And hopefully the audience loves it as much as I do.”