Macon Magazine

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022 | maconmagazine.com 93 What inspires you to perform drag? It started at an early age. I have always been fascinated with fancy clothes and bright stuff, shiny stuff, glittery stuff. We really started when I was in high school. I did my first drag show in high school. I went to Southwest High School. So we would have, like, talent shows, and I always sang like a girl when I was coming up, so I wouldn't go through no boy song. So I did Diana Ross's "Love Hangover," and I won the contest. How has performing drag informed the way you live now? Well, I've always been openly gay, you know. I never hid my sexuality. I was different from my other brothers and sisters. I acted different and everything. But doing drag, it just gives me -- I can express myself more. And I've been doing it for over 50 some years. When I started, when I first did drag, I was, like, 17. What do you think the Central Georgia community could do to better support its LGBTQ community, especially the drag queens and kings? We used to have a lot of clubs, but now we don't have a club. If the community could open up and give the young ones a place that they can go and be themselves, I mean, that will help the community because we really have nowhere to go but into the street. What do you wish more people knew about drag? It's a art. It really is. The things that we have to go through to prove -- like, I do Tina Turner, I do Mary J. Blige -- you have to sit down and study these people, their moves, you know, how they act, how they carry themselves. Some people think it's gettin' up in drag, lipsyncin' to a song -- it's not that. You have to have a costume. You just can't go out there in anything because they be lookin' for the glitz and the glamour. What makes you feel appreciated? If I can make someone smile and have a good time, I'm satisfied. What is the legacy you hope to leave? That the up-and-coming queens here in Macon pull it together because we have separated. You got this group, and you got this group, and they fight against each other. You got some that don't like some because some are better than others. I'm the oldest living drag queen, and I sit back and I watch how they fight against each other instead of trying to pull together. It was bad when the straight community was going against us, and then when you got the gay community going at it against the gays, it's really sad. My legacy is that one day we can all just join, come back together like we used to and be one big happy family. What advice would you have for the younger drag queens and kings in the Macon community? When one is down, we need to pick them up, show them the ropes, show them the right way to do it, how to apply their makeup, don't go out there looking all wrong. What would you say makes a hero? Somebody that gives back to the community. Like I said, I've been doing it for a long time. When AIDS first come around, we used to do certain things to raise money for people with AIDS that didn't have it, their family had threw them away, didn't want nothing to do with them. We would raise money to give them shelter, to give them a Christmas, to give them a good Christmas, but we don't do that now. Everybody, everybody's for themselves. We still got a lot of gay people that's out there that's homeless. They don't have a family because when their family find out that they're gay, they shove 'em away from them. I thank God that my family stood by me, accepted me for who I was and what I was. My mom and my dad -- my dad used to come and watch the shows. Back then, that was strange, for a Black gay person's father to come watch their son dressed up like a, like a girl and do shows and stuff. To make a hero, you have to do a lot, and I have done a lot for the gay community here. I have raised a lot of money. I have helped a lot of people with AIDS. We used to have our benefit shows, used to rent the city auditorium and do big benefits shows. We don't do none of that no more. I was one of the first ones planning for the gay community. I was the first one to help raise money to get the clinic so they can get medical attention and stuff like that. I think people like that's what makes a hero. What's the reason that you get out of bed every morning? Life. What about life? My higher power, which I choose to call God, gives me another chance of life. A lot of people don't know, but a lot of people do know, I was diagnosed in '88 with HIV. But to wake up every morning and sit at the table, that's a blessing. At my age -- I'm 61 years old, soon to be 62, and God, He helped bless me. I had a drug problem. I've been clean now for 28 years, and that's a miracle. To wake up every day and not want to get high, not want to drink. Is there anything else that you want me to know? Like I said, I'm a recovering addict. I've been clean for 28 years. And in the drag world, you get caught up. You want to be the top girls, so you want to — they're doin' their thing, and you want to fit in, so you get caught up. When I first started doing drag, I didn't drink. I didn't do that. And these girls, the upper-class girls, they was doing their thing and say you want to fit in, so that's how you end up getting caught. And to the young ones that are coming up, I would like to say don't get caught up. Be yourself. Back then, I was mostly a follower. Then I ended up being a leader when I got myself back together. I would like you to just leave with that. Don't be a follower. Be a leader in the drag world. HEROES AMONG US Tangerine Summers PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERICA WORD

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