I met Bestie Clemy on the third floor of the UC as she was getting ready for a drag show. I actually reached out a few days prior to it to see if she would be interested in being part of my Conversations project.

Bestie has performed drag for a little over two years now. She told me she got started after her friend who was already a drag queen at the time told her she should give it a shot. She was a bit skeptical at first, but after learning that she could be an AFAB Drag Queen, she was on board. As Bestie puts it, “It felt like a door opened that I didn't even know was there, and I was like, if I'm allowed, and the community wouldn't mind a person like me taking up some space in it, I would absolutely love to get into this...“

At this point we need to talk about what AFAB is. AFAB stands for Assigned Female At Birth. Bestie very clearly identified herself as an AFAB Drag Queen when I first sat down with her and I have also seen her tag her photos with it. She told me she stresses her identity because even with drag being the embodiment of high femme impersonation, sometimes AFAB performers get passed up for work because of their anatomy. There is a history of gatekeeping and "transformation" skepticism throughout the drag scene. Now, this conversation is not about those issues, but those issues shouldn’t be ignored either.

Bestie told me more about how she got into drag and with her background in theater from college she has always loved the stage. She didn’t always have the dark southern gospel drag look she has now. She started the idea of creating a character and femming her up to the max, extra soft, extra pop, and eventually worked into her current form.

One topic I wanted to ask her about is drag houses. She hails from the Haus of Primadonna. I have always heard the term before but thought it was a New York or California thing. Let’s just say I was wrong and leave it at that. I asked her how many houses are in Gainesville, she couldn’t tell me. She guessed at several dozen at least. Drag houses are as you would imagine them, you have your Matriarch who is the head of the house, then you have the daughters. Eventually one of the daughters will start their own house, have their own daughters and from that point, you can see a family tree.

When you think about drag queens, only one place comes to mind. The UC. Which is great! They seem to have drag going on every single night. What Gainesville needs is some other venues to open up to drag performances. There seems to be an insane amount of talent in the local community, but only one place they can really shine. This being Gainesville, I expect we should start seeing more venues having shows.

Also a huge shout out to the performers that night that let me into their space so I could get some editorial photos. Thanks!