But she expressed a deep longing to reconnect with her Austin drag family. The return to work might also have to be postponed for Hughes, who is still recovering from her time in the ICU. “And I know there are so many entertainers who are waiting till this moment when finally we can perform again.” “This is something I’ve been waiting for for so long,” Fontaine said. Still, many Austin drag queens said they aren’t ready to return to work yet. “And when that happened, I was like, ‘Oh, well like let’s all do it together.’ Because it’s more fun for there to be a bunch of drag queens than there just be one.”Īfter Dobie restarted shows in October 2020, Light said she was shocked at the growing response from the UT community. “I didn’t realize that there were other (students) who wanted to do it, too,” Light said. Through talent shows and Rupaul’s Drag Race dress-up nights for students at Dobie, Light said she fell in love with the craft. Light made her big break by competing in season 13 of Drag Survivor in 2019, a drag competition at Austin’s oldest gay bar, Oilcan Harry’s.
“I’ve been working everything digital, but, at the same time, I get the opportunity here at home to start creating new things.”Īt a drive-in-drag show hosted by The Q Austin in September 2020, Austin queen Celia Light performed live for the first time since March. “When it comes to my career, I adapted myself to the situation,” Fontaine said. Yet whether performing shows online or writing opera music, Fontaine said she accepted the change in pace with enthusiasm. “But the support that I’ve found here in Austin is a really beautiful connection.”Īs a survivor of liver cancer, Fontaine also hasn’t been able to perform in-person since the pandemic. “I’ve been to Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and so many cities here in Texas,” Fontaine said. The family-like bond among drag queens is what led Cynthia Lee Fontaine, RuPaul’s Drag Race season eight and nine star, to move to Texas from Puerto Rico in 2008. “Not just at the support for me but the support they were giving my mom.”
Austinites had rallied to raise support for Hughes through benefit shows, designing and selling special t-shirts and a GoFundMe account. “And four days later, I woke up.”Īfter returning home from a two-month hospitalization, Hughes said she was overwhelmed by the support of the Austin drag queen community. “They basically told my mom there was nothing else they could do and to start preparing things for me to not be here,” Hughes said.
“Adapting is what drag queens do,” said Nadine Hughes, a native Austin queen and show director at Rain on 4th Street, an Austin gay bar.Īfter coming down with a bad case of pneumonia induced by COVID-19, Hughes was admitted into the ICU at Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin in December, where she remained in a coma for over a month. But navigating drag during the pandemic has been only one of the many challenges the community has faced. Austin’s drag queens are preparing to return to the main stage with renewed purpose and strength after venues continue to loosen COVID-19 capacity limits.ĭrag queens in Austin have found innovative ways to connect with audiences during a year of isolation by doing socially-distanced shows and performing online.