The ‘We’re Here’ Queens Fought Drag Bans and Anti-Gay Hate

When We’re Here debuted in 2020, a global pandemic prematurely curtailed the first season. Now entering its fourth year, the HBO docuseries faces a different existential threat: anti-LGBTQ+ legislation impacting states like Tennessee and Oklahoma.

Not only are four new hosts joining the We’re Here family, but they are venturing to only two places this season: Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Bartlesville, Oklahoma (and their surrounding areas). The new line-up of Sasha Velour, Priyanka, Jaida Essence Hall, and Latrice Royale lead the show’s mission to spread a message of love and connection in divisive times. They are taking over from the three drag queens who hosted the previous seasons, Eureka, Bob the Drag Queen, and Shangela, who used the transformative power of drag to embolden queer people who live outside the big-city liberal bubble.

While previous seasons of the series revealed the challenges of small-town living for members of the LGBT+ community, We’re Here has now changed its focus as the cultural landscape has become more dangerous. It is why spending three episodes in one place is so effective; the series is looking to the future.

Drag representation continues to thrive on television with the ever-expanding RuPaul’s Drag Race global franchise, myriad movies, and We’re Here picking up multiple Emmy Awards, but the opportunities to see and perform in drag shows—or even attend Pride celebrations—are shrinking in some locations across the United States.

Rather than shrinking from the fight, the We’re Here team spends more time with the queer communities most impacted by proposed restrictions. After all, the title of this series says it all—this isn’t We’re Kinda Here. Whether in off-duty attire to hand out Pride flags to local businesses or heading to City Hall or the State Capitol in gag-worthy glittering rhinestones, Barbie pink feathers, and sequins, showing up is never not an option for these drag queens. It is reality TV at its most vital: serving relevance, visibility, and fabulosity.

“I was really excited, a little bit nervous because the political climate has changed a lot for the worse since the show started,” Season 9 Drag Race winner Sasha Velour tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. “I think there was a slight backlash to drag in all the places that the queens traveled before, but that backlash has gotten so much more organized and filled with hate, misinformation, and fears about not just drag, but trans people, nonbinary people, young people who are identifying as queer and trans.”

Visibility within these small communities is part of the We’re Here mission. “It felt so essential to keep putting on shows and spreading truth and love,” says Sasha. Spending additional time with their drag daughters gave the hosts the opportunity to paint a fuller picture of their past and present—as well as future dreams.

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Don’t worry; it’s not all serious. Big wigs, luscious lashes, walking in heels, and turning it out in a sickening outfit are still on this dazzling menu. When the new season launches Friday on HBO, Sasha will be joined by the inaugural Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka and fellow Drag Race alum Jaida Essence Hall in Tennessee. Fan-favorite Drag Race star Latrice Royale makes her entrance in the second half of the season, when the queens venture to Oklahoma.

Here, Sasha, Priyanka, Jaida, and Latrice talk about working with their drag daughters, staying safe in hostile environments, navigating anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, and the power of drag.

Not just a makeover

The seriousness of the real-life stakes for the community are made apparent from the opening minutes of the Season 4 premiere, pairing the sound of an ominous ticking clock as the queens put their makeup on with a news report that Tennessee is enacting the nation’s first drag ban.

A hot pink title card tells viewers it is Summer 2023, and there is no sugarcoating or pretending that everything is fine.

“When the opportunity came up, I was like, ‘Me, in a small American town. With Trump supporters. Huh? That does sound like an interesting TV show, doesn’t it?’” Priyanka says. “I was excited to finally get my hands dirty.” When Priyanka won the Drag Race: Canada crown it was still the pandemic, which meant that all her looks were created in isolation: “Everything has been created in my house.” With We’re Here, she finally had the opportunity to go out and have important conversations face-to-face with members of the community.

Likewise, Jaida Essence Hall rose to fame during the WFH era, winning Season 12 after a jaw-dropping lip-sync battle in 2020 that was shot virtually from her house. That experience left her wanting to “do more work, especially with my drag and my platform.”

Going into the regions where the new laws are being proposed and passed is an act of demonstrable resistance. Jaida refers to the “trickle effect” of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation: “If they have their own way, and they can run freely, these laws will then be passed in other spaces and other places.” Similarly, showing up and celebrating drag is a trickle effect in the opposite direction, making a positive change.

Latrice Royale, who joins the show in the second half of the season, compares being cast on We’re Here to a Cinderella moment: “When I got the opportunity to come on board, it felt like the glass slipper—like the right fit. It was timely.”

Putting on a drag show is still an intrinsic part of the fabric of We’re Here, but this time, the journey is more than just a one-night-only affair. Traveling to Murfreesboro, a city that canceled Pride, followed by Bakersville, the queens struggled to find any indoor spaces that would let them film a conversation, let alone stage a drag show.

The queens’ relationships with their drag daughters goes much deeper this season. “I don’t want to start any chaos in their life,” Jaida says. “I want to be there and support them in the best way and see how I can be effective.”

Staying safe

The queens worked closely with their drag daughters (and their friends and family) to highlight queer-friendly spaces and carve out a place in their towns where they could feel safe being the truest versions of who they are. From the organizers of a wrestling show to local businesses, an array of people in these towns show up too. “Anyone can be brave; anybody can impact change in the world,’ says Jaida. “We all deserve to stand up for what is right for us and, even in spaces where sometimes that can feel scary, find community, but don’t be afraid to be heard.”

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Because of the charged political discourse, the queens had to deal with some terrifying confrontations. “I was shocked and not shocked. We’re in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, sitting in City Hall. We know things are not great here—they banned Pride here,” says Priyanka. Still, it was surreal to experience the hatred first-hand rather than watching it on a phone screen or in the news. “I kept saying, ‘Doing We’re Here is like doing TikTok live.’ All the stuff that you see on TikTok and all of a sudden living it,” says Priyanka. “Now I’m here with them all of a sudden in the room where they banned drag, like, ‘How is this happening?’”

In the second half of the season, an event in a public park showcases the full spectrum of opinion, from support to outrage. Because “people are unpredictable,” you can’t fully control any situation, Latrice says. But that never deterred her from doing what she came to do. “We were in dangerous and compromising situations. But as I stated, and I will continue to state, I will fight to the nth degree for my freedom to be who I am.”

Even a town like Murfreesboro has room to motivate its population to come together in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ ordinances. “If you organize and motivate people, you can get the queer community that lives in every town—because we are everywhere—to stand up for each other and to show up and to let people know they aren’t alone,” says Sasha.

The bonds between the queens and their drag daughters, then, have gone far beyond just a makeover moment. Sasha still gives her drag daughters assignments and check-ins; the shared bond is unmistakable even when the cameras are no longer present.

“As much as I would have thought, ‘OK, this HBO show, this one night of drag, cannot change people’s lives. Not really.’ I watched it have a permanent effect on my drag daughters,” says Sasha. “Maybe it’s that sense that someone believes in you and believes you have something important enough to say to put it on TV—to make it the centerpiece of a story.”

Purposefully confusing laws

So, what does a drag ban in Murfreesboro mean? When the queens try to determine what qualifies as breaking the law, they get a vague response. “The logic I think of using these abstract ideas of morality clauses and decency ordinances is to purposefully create a shifting and impossible metric that leaves people so confused and so afraid they just self-censor and stay silent out of fear of being arrested,” says Sasha. It is a fear that the queens experienced in these places.

Questions about the legal definition of indecency and whether it pertains to wearing a dress in public or if it specifically applies to drag shows go unanswered. “They couldn’t tell us; it’s up to the officer. So that was kind of scary because I always felt like we were on the edge,” says Priyanka. As she’s a Canadian citizen, getting kicked out of the country was a real concern she raised in the premiere.

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At the same time, Priyanka never let that possibility deter her from the work she came to do: “If it means one person being inspired that I was willing to risk it all to do it. Why not? That's what I wanted to do this year. I wanted to help people.” Of course, Priyanka didn’t want to be arrested or lose her work visa, but she also didn’t want to let this fear hold her back: “I was willing to go for it, and luckily, nothing happened.”

The queens also learned that showing how vague the new legislation is reduces its power. “I think exposing that maybe there isn’t so much weight behind those laws as you might have thought, that we can push forward and that there is a way around,” says Sasha. “I think that was powerful for the people in the town, and to see that people will show up.”

After the experience of filming We’re Here, Latrice believes that “hope is still alive.” The fight for equality is far from over, particularly in this election year: “If you don't understand that we are in a crisis, in a state of emergency, and literally fighting for our lives—we are queens in the trenches—you better get on board, get a clue, and get with it.”

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