For many, the holidays are about gathering with friends, family and serving home-cooked meals, along with presents. For others, it’s still about friends and family, but the servings are ‘fierce’ and ‘realness.’
“The majority of my time during any week is spent attending classes, studying, completing assignments, completing papers,” said Will Alvarado. “Currently my major thing is I go to school.”
With an undergrad degree from Princeton, Alvarado is back home in New York in the final year of a physician’s assistant degree.
“I cannot stress enough how much that program takes from you and takes out of you,” Alvarado said. “You’re going to be a health care provider, so that should ask a lot out of you.”
Even with all that on his plate, there’s more to do.
“I’ve always wanted to do something theatrical to balance out my, like, right-sided, like science brain. And this is like the new iteration of that,” Alvarado said.
That’s where ‘she’ comes in – Ms. Willa DeWhisp. Through the hectic schedules of school, drag and everything else, she has never had a cigarette, taken recreational drugs, or consumed alcohol. Well, almost.
“I don’t know, like when I accidently drink like my mom’s Coca-Cola or like vodka Sprite or something like rum and coke at like family parties,” Willa said. “Where I’m like, Oh, is this my drink? And it wasn’t.”
Sobriety isn’t anything new in the queer community. American Addiction Centers states that the use of illegal substances is more than twice as likely as compared to heterosexual counterparts, and just under that percentage falls into disorders. Chief among the causes are discrimination and a lack of support for the LGBTQ+ community, especially in drag. Willa has seen and heard the worst of it.
“People used to do it. So hidden that getting absolutely wasted was like the only way you probably feel comfortable doing it,” Willa said.
So it was an obvious choice even at a young age.
“My whole thought was like, ‘well, I never did it because I didn’t want to be out myself’,” Willa added. “Why don’t we just continue that now that we know that if I did start, there’s like a high likely genetic propensity for me to become very addicted to things. So I just never did that either.”
From runways to dive bars, the drag race to just getting out the door. The struggle is real.
“Diva, every weekend is a mess,” Willa said. “Every weekend is a mess of me running around doing drag.”
But for so many and a growing number of sober queens, they’d have it no other way.
“The nice part is, drag is not an amalgamation of friend time, work time and like in enjoyment, time and playtime,” Willa said. “It just shows that the community, as a whole, has allowed us to be more comfortable doing what we do without needing some sort of substance to break down our own inhibitions.”
Drag scenes continue to promote inclusivity and togetherness across New York state. Something needed for so many in and out of makeup this holiday season. Make sure, if you’re interested, to go out and support your local queens.
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