00:03:49.280And just for a very brief moment, I was the president for a little while,
00:03:54.240so I got to see a really wonderful side of our community through that.
00:03:59.520But once Mélange Magique closed, unfortunately,
00:04:03.720the community centre lost its physical space,
00:04:06.940but it does continue to do community events every once in a while.
00:04:10.340I'm not really a part of it anymore just because I've got so many other things going on.
00:04:15.280But yeah, it's the community is still out there.
00:04:18.680And so tell me, like, the word witch is such a huge umbrella that encompasses so many things, you know, hippies to goths.
00:04:28.940What does the word witch mean to you or what does being a witch mean to you?
00:04:34.440um so the thing is that like as a as a queer person I always like I love I love a label
00:04:45.040in the sense that like when it means something to somebody it's really important to be able to
00:04:49.980have that label but I also realize that like you know if again if I put it in like kind of a queer
00:04:56.800context you know we have he him lesbians who are you know non-binary and that can sound really
00:05:05.200confusing to somebody outside of the the community but you kind of realize like listen the words are
00:05:09.440there to help us not necessarily to like trap us so i kind of feel the same way with witch where
00:05:16.060like witch is what witch does i guess you know like if you're if you're out there slinging spells
00:05:22.320you're a witch and if you're not slinging spells and you still say you're a witch and you can
00:05:26.860like explain that to me I'll probably be on your side so like for me being a witch is just that I0.87
00:05:33.040am uh like I said I'm a it's part of my spirituality it's part of the way that I
00:05:39.520keep myself grounded and I don't like to say like in touch with nature because listen I can
00:05:45.620I can barely tell what day it is I don't know what the moon cycles are I need a book for it
00:05:51.520there's an app for that you know so like but it is what kind of keeps me grounded gives me a little
00:05:57.280bit of my sense of uh power and control I love the ritual of things so uh yeah I mean I'm a witch
00:06:04.360because I said so I love that and we talk about that a lot like um which is one of the few things
00:06:13.940where you can self-ordain like you get to decide that you are the high priestess of your life or
00:06:19.900whatever so if you say you're a witch then you are one is kind of the whole thrust of the missing
00:06:25.660witches project right um i want to dig into so many things but this is a question that i've
00:06:32.580wanted to ask you since the cast announcement of drag race season five so okay the drag race
00:06:40.420fandom is like notoriously um passionate i'm using scare quotes here some would say
00:06:47.300you're being very generous yes yeah but if they love you they love you and if they hate you
00:06:52.980they're gonna dm you like slurs so and that's like very very very real and to me very very very
00:07:02.820scary so how did you like psychologically and emotionally prepare for that kind of like0.98
00:07:11.460scrutiny especially specific to the drag race fandom who are fucking crazy like what like what0.93
00:07:19.580how and how did you psychologically and emotionally prepare for this new notoriety0.96
00:07:25.820so okay so well i don't think i said it when i was introducing myself but yes as a drag artist i was
00:07:31.900on uh season five of canada's drag race i had been auditioning since season one and i finally made it
00:07:37.820and uh my season has now been over for just a like it's it's been
00:07:43.020a couple of months since it's been it's finished airing so uh yeah uh I think the hardest part
00:07:50.880about kind of conceptualizing what I was heading into was that uh well it's it's that for a long
00:07:59.500time you can't tell anyone so you can't like you have to be really selective you're not allowed to
00:08:05.020tell anyone that you've you've filmed the show you can't tell any details you can't tell anybody
00:08:10.040anything until they announce it and so if you're really following the letter of the law then you're
00:08:15.160not you don't have a lot of opportunity to kind of uh get a system down on how you're going to
00:08:21.440deal with these things but I am very lucky because like I said my husband is also my drag sister
00:08:27.680uh and she is incredible we call her the mistress of business she had everything organized for me
00:08:35.940and she's also like the organizer of my life so selma was there the entire time she was aware
00:08:45.420that i was like it'd be hard for me to get on the show and not tell my husband
00:08:48.620but she was there to like basically keep an eye on the socials i basically wouldn't check my
00:08:56.520socials until selma had done it for me because she would make sure to block anybody that needed0.99
00:09:01.680to be blocked she made sure to highlight the best comments she took screenshots of the ones that she
00:09:07.080knew i you know like there's platforms that i don't touch like reddit i don't know how it works
00:09:11.340so like i'm not on there but she was and she would take screenshots of the the the nice things that
00:09:16.420people were saying because she knew like you said they're very passionate the fandom and so it's easy
00:09:22.580to lose track of all the positive things that people are saying. So she was there to make sure
00:09:26.920that I saw the good stuff. Luckily, I kind of hit this sweet spot where, yeah, there's a bunch of
00:09:35.340people that absolutely couldn't stand me, but I'm used to that. My drag is very intentional. None of
00:09:41.720this is happening by accident. You know what I mean? So I know what I look like, what I sound
00:09:46.240like. I know what my sense of humor is. And I know that that is very polarizing. So I've been doing
00:09:51.620this for 10 years, I knew that it was going to be polarizing. So it's nothing new. It was just a
00:09:57.280lot bigger. And yeah, I had a really great support system there. Selma was screening all of the
00:10:02.160contact stuff that was coming into me. And anytime something really upset me, I had lots of people
00:10:07.440that I could talk to. Because when I was auditioning for the show, I always kept telling
00:10:11.620them, I was like, they'd say like, what are you going to do if people don't like you? And I kept
00:10:17.680telling them like well of course I'm going to be upset like I want to be liked but in the end of
00:10:21.860the day at the end of the day I know that I'm loved so I'm going to be fine I want that on a
00:10:28.200t-shirt I want to be liked but I know that I'm loved I'm just going to say it one more time
00:10:35.480listeners like let's try to internalize this all of us I want to be liked but I know that I am loved
00:10:42.960that's brilliant that's brilliant and go ahead it was one of the things that that kept me going
00:10:50.320through the competition is that like i knew that i had a great community even outside of like you
00:10:56.880know yes there are fans that are super important to my career people that like are at every show
00:11:01.820and they become like a part of the the big big drag family in a in an extended way but in the
00:11:09.180end I knew that I had those core people that were going to be there to support me and cheer me on0.98
00:11:15.200and defend me and whatever else I needed I knew that it was going to be there so like that's
00:11:20.220really what kept me going through a lot of this experience and you know just to tie it back a
00:11:25.440little bit to what we were talking about before like I I always knew the importance of community
00:11:30.580like as a queer person but also like my work at the the resource center you know again you see how
00:11:36.940you see how community can rally around somebody who's in need and you can see how what it looks
00:11:45.300like to reach out to community when you're in need so like I had experience on on both sides
00:11:49.920so I I was well prepared yeah yeah when when you and Selma were on the show together way back in
00:11:57.880the olden days um the the theme of the podcast was chosen family so I know that there are a lot
00:12:06.280of people out there who are you know feeling lonely feeling isolated even even still post
00:12:12.900pandemic or post during whatever's happening right now I always say I always say post lockdown
00:12:18.920we're still we're still in it but we're at least we're allowed to go outside now
00:12:22.660exactly so what's your advice to people who are looking to build community
00:12:27.780it's always so hard right because the different reasons that people may feel like they are
00:12:36.960lacking in community like there's so many there's there's so many um what's the word that i'm
00:12:44.100looking for variables that are at play in everyone's scenario so there's no way to like give
00:12:50.380a an idea to somebody and be like here's how you fix it because i have no idea right so like
00:12:57.060I'm very very lucky in that I live in a big city that has a pagan community has a queer community
00:13:03.940has a drag community has a community of artists and so I'm I'm very lucky I can talk to how I
00:13:10.680managed to make that happen but I know that it won't always work for everybody but like my biggest
00:13:16.260thing is always you can't necessarily wait for community to come to you you have to be able to
00:13:23.060seek out community and so like for me for instance I come from I'm like I grew up in Ontario
00:13:29.960in a very tiny tiny tiny village of 250 people and I knew that going to high school in this
00:13:40.040tiny community was going to be bad for me I had already like before I even got to high school
00:13:46.780they told me they they said uh you know the boys on my bus that were in the high school they told
00:13:51.720us like we have we we made a paddle with your name on it in shop class like we're gonna we're
00:13:58.180gonna beat you and so I knew it wasn't gonna be a good idea and so I auditioned for an art school
00:14:05.220in like Ottawa proper and so that's how I knew like okay I'm not gonna have my community here
00:14:11.900I have to go to my community so I went to an art school when I graduated from college my husband
00:14:18.180said that you know he wants to go to school in montreal and i said well you make all of the
00:14:24.500best food for me so i'm going with you uh so like we moved to montreal and when i was here i actually
00:14:32.500i fell out of performing for a little while and so the thing that got me back into that sense of
00:14:40.540community is that i started going to the witchcraft shop and while i was at the witchcraft shop i
00:14:45.500talked to the people that were there and they told me about the the pagan resource center which meant
00:14:49.980that i started to build community there when i stopped being part of the like a an active
00:14:58.620member of the the pagan community here in montreal part of it was work related but
00:15:02.940eventually i managed to find the drag community and it was always seeking out those spaces and
00:15:09.340and like putting my hand out letting people know that I'm there talking to people it can be as
00:15:17.220simple as like going to a class that you like it doesn't necessarily mean like I have to find queer
00:15:23.280people so I'm going to the queer spaces listen like we're everywhere so that means that like
00:15:30.160if I go to a pottery class and someone picks up on the fact that I'm queer well then the queer
00:15:36.020people in the room are going to gravitate towards me and the same thing can happen for if you go to0.84
00:15:39.820a space and you know there's a little bit of like a if you if you give out the vibe of the the witchy
00:15:45.580pagan experience the witchy pagans are everywhere and you that's who you're going to pull towards
00:15:51.120you you have to get out there and it's scary and it's hard and sometimes it's not always safe so0.99
00:15:56.120you do have to be careful but it's just one of those things where you have to you have to get
00:16:00.960out there and make yourself part of the community and you have become like a pillar of that community
00:16:08.960I think you have many drag children um does your background I mean I think I know the answer to0.95
00:16:16.920this but like does your background in early childhood education influence like Uma the0.99
00:16:23.040the character of Uma um yes and no so I think because I actually I never intended on becoming
00:16:32.060an early childhood educator um basically I did a co-op placement in high school in a head start
00:16:39.620program with children's aid and that was that was fine uh but I had no idea what I wanted to do as
00:16:47.100a career and so I was supposed to take a year off between high school and college to figure out what
00:16:52.220program I wanted to take and on the last day of school my parents came to my school while I was
00:16:58.020all done up in costume for the the final day assembly and they were like we're signing you
00:17:02.700up for college now and they dragged me to the the guidance counselor and they were like we're
00:17:08.800signing her up for for something and it was my guidance counselor was like well you seem like
00:17:14.220you have it in you to be an educator so why don't you pursue that and she she like listed off all
00:17:20.160these things that I'd never thought about myself and she was like look at all these personality
00:17:25.060traits that you have you'd make a great educator I think and so I think that that's why for Uma
00:17:32.460being an early childhood educator doesn't necessarily inform Uma it's the it's those
00:17:38.080parts of me that I carried over into ECE also got carried over into uh into drag because I always
00:17:47.080said that's why she's everyone's unofficial auntie is because I always said that I wanted Uma to be
00:17:51.760like a warm hug I wanted her to be your the the welcoming face of the community I wanted everyone1.00
00:17:57.360to feel good when she was around I didn't want to be you know a hunty hunty rackety ta-ta-ta girl0.96
00:18:03.320like that's not me yeah high kicks well and like even just kind of like the the shade and you know0.98
00:18:11.260the the I'm better than everyone attitude there is there's a time and a place and a person that
00:18:16.300is great at doing that and it's the place for them but it's not for me so that's why it kind of
00:18:22.160like all of the the elements that made me a good educator are also what make Uma a good you know
00:18:27.580unofficial auntie I say um so so yeah I mean in the end it wasn't really like one influenced the
00:18:34.100other it's more that I influenced both of those scenarios as who I am as a person because they're
00:18:39.340both you so yeah exactly Uma is a character I like you know I have a whole theater piece that
00:18:45.760i'm bringing back to the edinburgh fringe this summer uh that's all about like uma's life it
00:18:51.160tells the story of her career and her her building her family so like uma is a is a character but i
00:18:57.100always say that uma is uh is me cranked up to 10 you know like it's she's she's the full-time
00:19:04.920best version of me you know i have my down days and i have my bad days and uma is kind of like
00:19:12.180me without those and so she is me but better well not better but just more more more more more more
00:19:21.960more is that um are you there margaret it's me god are you taking that back yes i am actually
00:19:29.100yeah i'm really really proud of that one and we figured now that i've been on drag race maybe i'll
00:19:32.860have a little bit of an easier time you know getting bums in the seats so we figured now's
00:19:38.000the time let's let's give it another go the first time went beautifully the edinburgh fringe is the
00:19:41.960biggest fringe it's the original fringe uh there's 3 700 shows the last time i was there
00:19:47.800but i had sold out nights i got amazing reviews so we're bringing it back and we're hoping to
00:19:55.300share the joy of of drag yeah tell me about the genesis of the uma character um so when i
00:20:05.240When I moved to Montreal, I fell out of the performance scene for a little while.
00:20:11.160And the thing that got me back in was actually I was a backup dancer because the art school that I auditioned for and got into, Canterbury in Ottawa, I was in the dance program.
00:30:08.380and I don't necessarily internalize that the same way.
00:30:11.440So that's not necessarily what my job is.
00:30:14.560I want people to, like, I surround myself
00:30:17.420with the people that do know how it works,
00:30:19.200And I help them get the information out. That's my strength. That's how I am activated as a person.
00:30:27.280And so Uma is always trying to do the same thing, where I'm just trying to get people activated.
00:30:33.420I don't want them to feel that politics is like, it's too dark, it's too complicated.0.99
00:30:38.260Because if a funny woman, who is a birthday clown made of couch cushions, who does silly comedy drag,0.68
00:30:46.100can turn around and say, by the way, this is an important political thing. If I can do that,0.98
00:30:52.440then it means that you can also do it without feeling like you have to be Debbie Downer at
00:30:57.600all times. You know, like I'm trying to set that example and I'm trying to get people involved
00:31:02.060in a warm, welcoming way. And then in contrast, you have Selma, again, my drag sister and my
00:31:07.940husband, who is the mistress of business and your motivational monster. So her job is getting people1.00
00:31:14.560riled up she is so good at making people feel the fire inside of them to get out there and she's0.99
00:31:21.820also incredibly intimidating so she's gonna like dominatrix you into being a better person into1.00
00:31:29.760being a you know an activated person into being someone who is involved because you want her to
00:31:36.080be impressed by you because you want her to like you because you're a little afraid that she might
00:31:40.200step on your neck so like that's kind of what we always have done is that that you know we have our
00:31:47.240point of view as drag characters but we want to make sure that it leads to the same place we're
00:31:52.140all on different roads heading to the same destination i saw in one interview you called
00:31:57.480yourself lazy and i was like really like i think of uma and ryan as extremely hard-working people0.98
00:32:03.880is that just selma kicking your ass absolutely 100 i tell her all the time i'm like yes i have0.98
00:32:12.140accomplished a great deal in my in my career and i can only say that it's because of selma because0.98
00:32:21.400if it was me i would have yeah maybe i would have started drag maybe but i would be doing it once a
00:32:28.160month maybe when i feel like it and i would still have a day job and you know i would never have
00:32:33.380gone to edinburgh i never would have gone to puerto vallarta i never would have gone to
00:32:37.040you know i never would have brought a show to toronto like none of that would be happening
00:32:40.620it's because she sees the world as full of possibilities and roads to get places and
00:32:47.300she is great at reading the map i'm just happy to be here i feel you i think that's like me and
00:32:55.800reese's dynamic as well where i'm just happy to be here and she's like very a very driven person
00:33:01.840i say that selma uh selma is my agenda and she's like she's my stylist my co-director
00:33:09.160my my editor my chauffeur my cheerleader my agenda she points me in the right direction
00:33:14.980i'm just here to spin and and also like an incredible performer in her own right
00:33:20.600absolutely we love to see selma perform it's always a joy and speaking of joy like
00:33:28.440we talk about politics as being like this dark you know angry that kind of feeling but i feel
00:33:36.320like that that's what uma brings is that like reminder that joy is political especially for
00:33:42.900marginalized people well i mean there's that really popular uh quote that's going around i
00:33:48.920believe it was dan savage that said it where you know we would go to a funeral in the morning a
00:33:55.340protest in the afternoon and then dance all night and like the dancing all night part is really
00:34:01.760important because you have to remember why you are fighting it's for the joy you're fighting to
00:34:08.160protect your joy your happiness your strength your community your calm you're you're fighting
00:34:13.360for all of that and that's one of the things that I always tell people as well when we're talking
00:34:17.480about politics it can be really daunting in the world right now because there's always something
00:34:21.760to to to be upset about and I will tell people like no you sometimes you do have to take a rest
00:34:28.420sometimes you do have to disengage but the disengaging is for rest is for recuperation is
00:34:35.220for ensuring that you take the time to feel your joy and to recharge on that but the whole thing
00:34:41.780is that you rest and then you come back yes so even me like I don't use Facebook anymore because
00:34:48.780it became too too much for me it was too many comments it was too many posts from people that
00:34:55.640I thought that I could trust and it just it became so much that eventually I was like no
00:35:00.020so I don't deal with Facebook anymore but you know Twitter has a lot of my more political stuff and
00:35:05.700then Instagram I try to make sure that it's always in there to keep things moving and so that it's
00:35:10.200always on top of mind for as many people as I can make it happen but I set my limits in a way that
00:35:15.740make sure that I am I'm keeping myself primed to be involved without exhausting myself,
00:35:24.760but without disengaging so much that I become kind of like, well, literally disengaged.
00:35:30.640You know, that's for me, that's always been really important is finding that balance and
00:35:34.200showing that kind of balance, remembering the joy, because, you know, during during the lockdowns,
00:35:41.320we were doing three Twitch streams a week and Montreal's lockdown lasted longer than I think
00:35:47.780anywhere in Canada. So like we were at it for a long time and people said like you're the thing
00:35:54.120that is keeping me on schedule. You're the thing that's keeping me like I know I can I can wake up
00:35:59.780at this time and I can go see your show and then I make sure that I'm in bed at this hour. It keeps
00:36:04.060my life on schedule and it reminds me that there's people out there. It reminds me that there's people
00:36:09.000who care there's people who are having you know they have a smile on their face and joy in their
00:36:13.360heart it's really important but that's my job it doesn't mean that everybody has to only focus on
00:36:19.420finding joy I am here to bring you the joy and then somebody else is going to help you get the
00:36:25.640knowledge to do more of the the nitty-gritty stuff and I'm doing it behind the scenes as well
00:36:30.440like my my persona helps me bring it out there but then when I'm back you know when the camera's
00:36:36.020turned off, I am back to doing the work, reading the articles, talking to the people, whatever I
00:36:41.140can do. Let's move quickly from one taboo to another, from politics to religion. So this is
00:36:50.280kind of a two-part question. Number one is like, why Uma God? Why is that? Why did you choose that
00:36:56.540as your name? And secondly, you play with a lot of religious iconography in your looks, in your
00:37:05.300presentation in your art direction so I want to know is that just like a riff on the god name
00:37:11.700um or is there like a deeper point that you're trying to make uh so yes and yes all of that
00:37:21.360yes yes so originally Uma's name is literally just because I was with my best friend
00:37:31.260and we were hanging out at her place and i realized that we hadn't eaten in like
00:37:37.860hours and hours and hours and i said i'm so hungry oh my god
00:37:42.980and it clicked and i realized i was like that would be a great drag name
00:37:49.840and it did in it did influence the entirety of the character because originally i was actually
00:37:55.920going to go with um i was going to be rain just and it was sure it was yeah rain yeah and it was
00:38:05.080just going to be the the one name and it was actually based on all of like the pagan stereotypes
00:38:09.740like all of the pagan witchy stereotypes so it's um it i got the name from that bit in friends
00:38:16.380when um rachel and ross are trying to figure out names for the baby and they each get a veto
00:38:21.780and rachel says i what about rain and ross vetoes it and when he has to explain why he goes
00:38:28.920hi my name is rain i made my skirt out of wheat and then phoebe says oh i know her
00:38:36.760and i was like i literally know her like i know her so that was actually going to be my original
00:38:44.140drag name my original drag character but like can you imagine me hosting an entire show like
00:38:47.780hi everyone it's really nice to be here you do love accents oh I love it but like that would
00:38:57.540have been a terrible drag persona so luckily I changed it to Uma God and yes I built the um0.76
00:39:02.400kind of like the shtick around the idea of like I'm God part of it is just because it's
00:39:09.260entertaining it's really great iconography you can have so much room to play in there it's just
00:39:15.000so recognizable and so much fun but part of it really is that i grew up going to catholic school
00:39:21.000you know i did my confession communion confirmation i did all of that and luckily i don't have any
00:39:30.240massive religious trauma but i also know that i never 100 felt like
00:39:36.260i always felt like god loved me but not everyone else did and that really soured my relationship
00:39:47.600kind of one of those things where it was like yes i love you but your friends are pissing me off so
00:39:52.200we're not gonna hang out anymore like that's kind of how it felt and so you know eventually yes i
00:39:59.480converted to paganism because this to me actually this is the this is the audience i need to tell
00:40:03.940this story to uh so everyone so being an unofficial auntie is actually a reference to my godmother
00:40:13.160because we call her auntie ann she's not my aunt she's my mom's best friend
00:40:20.960and so i've always called her auntie ann and she was my godmother and so that's kind of where that
00:40:26.920idea of like being an unofficial auntie came from and so she's the woman that if my parents
00:40:33.640die she is in charge of my eternal soul yeah the godmother he's supposed to send me to heaven0.60
00:40:40.860basically she's making sure i get sent to heaven and for my in this like in grade six when i did
00:40:47.820my confirmation part of my confirmation gift was a book on greek gods so i spent the day saying yes
00:40:59.020i believe in god the holy trinity the jesus christ and the holy ghost and all this stuff
00:41:03.920and then that afternoon she goes and she's the one standing next to me with her hand on my shoulder
00:41:08.680while i make this announcement to the church and then she gets home and goes now here's all the
00:41:12.640other ones auntie ann auntie ann yeah all hail auntie ann i don't know if she knew what she was
00:41:21.280doing but so like i like to joke that it's her fault um but yeah so like i converted to paganism
00:41:28.180right after doing my confirmation so i am no longer catholic but i still want i know that
00:41:35.540it's a sore it's a sore spot for a lot of people and it's a place that you know a lot of people
00:41:41.280have a lot of hurt and so for me it was part of that mission to be that auntie that makes everyone
00:41:47.080feel welcome my idea was someone needs to hear god loves you as you are yes and that's why i
00:41:57.760leaned into it was because i needed someone to be able to like i knew that it would be good for
00:42:02.360someone because it was good for me to be able to say you know i used to do shows on sundays and
00:42:06.880we would tell people like you're gonna spend the day with god you're you know if you ask your mom
00:42:11.300you can say you on sunday you went to church you you talked to god because my show was called church
00:42:16.580yeah yeah yeah so like that was part of it was just being able to reclaim some of that trauma
00:42:23.280and I know that mine is not enormous but I was there to do it for myself and then to bring
00:42:28.720everyone else along with me now it's kind of funny though because I've been doing this for 10 years
00:42:32.100and in those 10 years there's only ever been one person that thought like oh are you like
00:42:37.760a super evangelical Christian like that's so weird and then I and then they asked me and I
00:42:42.980said no and they went oh okay and that was like in the first year that I did drag so it's been
00:42:47.320nine years since anyone has thought that i went on drag race and i there is there is so many people
00:42:54.220that are like talking about how i'm shoving my religion down their throats and they can't stand
00:42:59.920that i'm so preachy and i was like i'm talking about me i'm like when you say god bless they
00:43:06.180think you mean like yeah yeah they think i mean god and i'm like no i mean g-a-h-d me i understand
00:43:14.360that they wrote god in the subtitles because they didn't ask me but anytime i say god i'm saying
00:43:19.160god yes yes yes and that's kind of like the vibe that i get is exactly what you're saying where
00:43:26.220like if you have been told god hates you or god hates f slurs um then you need to be told god
00:43:35.400loves you you need someone to be told to to tell you that god loves you whether that's g-a-h-d or
00:43:41.980not like we and i want to quote from your little um go off um unofficial auntie for those who are
00:43:52.320rejected god loves that's g-a-h-d god loves you as you are your queerness is perfected and that's0.77
00:44:01.620such an incredible message like we were talking about that like kind of cunty reading you know0.91
00:44:08.500cutting up and kiki-ing but like this message of like you are loved and you are welcome and0.99
00:44:16.620I am your auntie is so huge I'm sure to like so many young people who need to hear God loves you
00:44:28.440tell me a bit like the writing of that and the idea of that well so that that was one of the
00:44:34.400things that i knew that i was like okay if we have to write a song i'm not going to be sitting
00:44:39.080there talking about you know how big my hair is and how small my waist is and how bitchy i am0.94
00:44:46.820mama rue the crown like you know all of the things that every drag race girl sings about
00:44:51.420um i knew that that wasn't like one it doesn't make sense coming from me anyways because like
00:44:57.180but also i was like this is my one opportunity they told us because that's the first that song
00:45:03.820is from the first episode of my season and they said you know this is what we're doing and you
00:45:09.400know going into Drag Race I said the only episode I am guaranteed to be on is the first one so this
00:45:17.640is the one where I tell everyone this is Uma so my first runway my my entrance look my promo look
00:45:27.040and this song I was like all right these are the ones that we're gonna like we're gonna spend the
00:45:32.640money the time the effort on and so uh like I I knew that I was going to say try to say something
00:45:42.080that would make it clear to people that this is the personality that Uma has and in the end yeah
00:45:48.460it really did help or I no I can say I can say that it helped people because I got I got DMs
00:45:55.560from people that said like here I am on a Saturday morning watching Drag Race crying because
00:46:02.340I didn't realize how much I wanted to hear someone say that God loves me you know people wrote to me
00:46:09.920to tell me that as much as there were people that were upset with me for shoving religion down their
00:46:14.520throat because they didn't get the joke there was people who either got the joke and it meant
00:46:21.260something or they didn't get it and it still meant something and I'm like yes my my drag is always
00:46:25.600going to be divisive I'm never going to please everybody but I'm doing it for the people who
00:46:29.460need it and that's that's what happened that's the matante sorry anglophones um that matante is
00:46:37.960like my aunt so like auntie is how we would say it um before we run out of time i want to do a
00:46:45.460little like magic manifesting and conjuring here with you today so if you're comfortable doing so
00:46:52.320you can close your eyes um I want to know considering queer as a verb like queer-ing0.66
00:47:00.800tell me about what a queered world would look like and how do we bring that to fruition0.60
00:47:10.460What does a queered world look like?1.00
00:47:17.220I think that a queer world is a world where we have a much better understanding of how to balance none of my business and good for you.1.00
00:47:36.980that is the queered world that I want to live in because that's what a lot of the tension in the0.99
00:47:45.000world right now boils down to is people that don't understand one or both of those things0.98
00:47:50.640because people being who they are unless it literally impacts somebody that's none of your
00:48:00.040business. And if we can see somebody being their most authentic self in a way that doesn't
00:48:07.660negatively impact anyone around them, literally, then good for them. If it's good for them,
00:48:15.840and it's good for the people around them, it's none of my business. We can just be happy that
00:48:22.060they're happy. And the more that we realize those two things, the happier we will be with ourselves
00:48:29.960and the people around us and sometimes and this is something that happens in the queer community
00:48:35.020just as much as it does in the rest of the world where we are so caught up in being afraid of
00:48:44.100being hurt being taken advantage of being scared of something any of those things that we we read
00:48:52.140the worst and least charitable thing into everything that happens around us sometimes
00:48:58.320we have excellent reason to but it still is to our detriment when it be when it goes too far0.90
00:49:05.440sometimes it's just none of my business good for you i love that like the the queering of the world1.00
00:49:18.980is this space where we can be happy for people who are happy yes exactly beautifully said1.00
00:49:26.500and it's i mean you know you and i we we live in our own little bubble where like that's how we
00:49:33.620want to go into the world and that but like there are so many people who just want other people to
00:49:40.760be unhappy it's mind-boggling well and like specifically if we look at something like
00:49:46.740religion or witchcraft or spirituality those kinds of things i know a lot of atheists that
00:49:53.120are against the idea of any religion just because it is religion and religion has been used for such
00:49:59.620terrible things and the thing is is that in my head your religion is for you it's not for everyone
00:50:12.220around you and if you can find a way to make it rich in your own life it shouldn't need to be
00:50:19.080about anybody else. And so that's why I don't necessarily think that we need to abolish
00:50:24.480religion completely from the world. There's so much beautiful art and philosophy and
00:50:32.880socialization that has come from people who are devoutly religious that I can't imagine a world
00:50:40.480where it's completely gone. But if people would just mind their business,
00:50:46.000we would have so much less difficulty because you don't worry about whether or not somebody
00:50:53.020else is practicing that religion you don't worry about what they are or are not practicing
00:50:57.060you're busy tend to your own garden don't worry about mine tend to your own garden that's what
00:51:06.980your spirituality should be about and that's one of the reasons that i think that like
00:51:10.260queer spirituality in particular and this you know is is especially true of like the big
00:51:18.400more mainstream religions but of any religion I find queer spirituality is so
00:51:23.340magnificent because we can't take any of it for granted really because even if you look at
00:51:29.940something that's really popular in queer spaces like Wicca Wicca is very binarist in a lot of
00:51:36.080ways. And if we're non-binary or care about non-binary people, it's hard to find your place.
00:51:41.820And so if you're a queer person saying, I'm a Wiccan, it's because you had to find yourself
00:51:47.720in that space. You had to make it work. You had to do the work to be whatever that title is,
00:51:56.060whether it's Christian or Muslim or Wiccan or broadly pagan or whatever it is. You had to look
00:52:03.140so deep that you could find yourself in there to me I think that that is stunning I think that's
00:52:09.820beautiful and that's why queer spirituality it it means so much to me because it means so much to
00:52:16.440every person that does it there is there is like the cases of queer people who are religious and
00:52:22.800I mean that in like the the big way none of it's by accident none of them are sitting there like0.70
00:52:28.980yeah you know my parents were catholic so like i figured i'd keep doing it like it doesn't happen
00:52:34.500like that the same way because we have to sit there and go yeah my parents are catholic but
00:52:39.100you know everyone wanted me gone but i decided to stay because and then you have to think about that
00:52:44.460the self-reflection and the meaning that you find in your spirituality or lack thereof even atheism0.54
00:52:51.060is like you know at some point you have to find yourself in that to me i think that queer
00:52:57.600spirituality is so beautiful for that reason. I know that, excuse me, I know that we are almost
00:53:05.240out of time, but I feel like we can't talk about queer spirituality without me asking you about
00:53:10.480your involvement with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. So you can be as long or as short as1.00
00:53:15.580you like with that description. So, I mean, I've done a lot of talking about religion and not
00:53:21.460actually named what I do. So I am generally just kind of pagan and witchy, but also a Hellenic
00:53:29.980revivalist, which means that I worship, specifically I worship Dionysus, but not necessarily
00:53:35.980in a reconstructionist kind of way. I kind of try to make it current to the world that
00:53:40.760we live in, not necessarily exactly how they did it in the old days. So that's kind of
00:53:46.240what I do. But the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a group that was founded in in San Francisco
00:53:54.180just before the AIDS epidemic. And they are a group of queer nuns. So the way that I describe0.98
00:54:01.360them is that they are nuns for those who have none and sisters for those who have no sisters.
00:54:08.420So the idea is that they are non-denominational queer nuns that are there for the queer community0.55
00:54:16.040and beyond to promulgate joy and expiate guilt the whole idea is that we are queers that are out
00:54:26.080there and we take your your spirit such as you might describe it and we want to protect it we
00:54:32.940want to love it we want to see it flourish you know uh sisters out in public they'll take
00:54:37.640confessional from people in the community so you know like we'll be at the bar and some will be
00:54:41.940like, I've got to talk to somebody. And we were there to listen. We're fundraisers, we're activists,
00:54:47.280we're theater people, we're drag artists, we do all of this stuff. And I was lucky enough to be
00:54:52.120one of the founding members of the Montreal chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
00:54:56.840And part of that really was, you know, like, I hadn't really started in drag yet. And I was
00:55:02.120looking for a way to bring performance and spirituality into the queer spaces. And the
00:55:08.820sisters were the perfect thing for that so if you're ever out at a queer bar and you see some0.94
00:55:14.720funny dressed people that have white faces with the like funny hats on every every um chapter has0.93
00:55:21.600a different wimple a different hat for their nuns uh but you know like if you ever hear anyone
00:55:26.560talking about the sisters it might be the sisters of perpetual indulgence and we're there for the
00:55:31.660community to link people up for resources to form community to take confessional to stand up for
00:55:38.480people to be guardian angels to do all of that and it's one of my proudest moments that I got to be
00:55:45.120one of the one of the sisters that founded the Montreal chapter yeah um listeners I did um an
00:55:51.380episode about the sisters of perpetual indulgence so I will link that in the show notes also I got
00:55:56.060to interview sister Roma yeah and like I don't even know how to articulate how I felt when I
00:56:06.200discovered the existence of the sisters of perpetual indulgence like i felt like this is0.83
00:56:11.660the world that i want to live in as long as i can like share a reality with this group that actually
00:56:18.540exists then like it's gonna be okay like roma is like such an icon has raised millions of dollars
00:56:27.020like saved who knows how many lives so i was so delighted to hear that you you had this um and i
00:56:35.500was at one of your shows and there was a sister in the audience and you'll recognize them listeners
00:56:40.960if you're out and about and you see a sister of perpetual indulgence you will know that it is a
00:56:46.800sister of perpetual indulgence and you can go up to them and ask them to take your confession
00:56:52.720or to receive blessings you know so the the sisters um they are they are parts you know um
00:57:00.840they are part non-denominational spirituality part theater but also part politics so like they
00:57:06.900were the first people to print um information about the AIDS crisis uh refer like they were
00:57:17.340the first people to address it as kind of like a sexually transmitted disease and how to try to0.66
00:57:22.740mitigate it as queer people so they put out it was called fair play and it was a sex ed pamphlet0.59
00:57:29.460that addressed, you know, sex for men who have sex with men and what they what at the time were the best practices to keep each other safer.0.97
00:57:37.920And so they've been doing that since the very beginning. They also used to hand out what were called rain checks.
00:57:42.760So, like, they would give it to people and they would say, like, if you want to hook up with a guy and that or like if a guy comes up to you and says, like, oh, I want to have sex.
00:57:49.720But you've got an STI. Well, you can sign your rain check with your phone number and your name and you can give it to him.
00:57:56.960you can say like not right now but later and you know like these are all kinds of things that
00:58:00.940they've done they've run for the sister boom boom was one of the the sisters in san francisco that0.98
00:58:05.840ran for office with her like as sister boom boom there's a law in place because they let her do it0.99
00:58:13.480and then they said from now on you have to run with your legal name sister roma was also the
00:58:18.980face of the uh the movement to try to limit facebook's control of legal names on facebook
00:58:26.640and part of it was because drag artists were losing our pages but part of it was because
00:58:30.760she recognized that trans people don't always have their name as they would like it on their
00:58:36.000on their legal documents and you know people who are hiding from abusive spouses don't necessarily
00:58:41.480have their their real name on facebook and she stood up for all of those people so like when
00:58:45.900when the sisters are out there they're out there for everyone for every different reason you can
00:58:49.400think of that's what they're there for yes amazing amazing um is he's in the chat she wants to know
00:58:56.000if your drag were a cocktail what would be in it and what would it do to us
00:59:02.200so here's the thing is that i am a dionysian and i have been in um commercials for the quebec
00:59:12.340liquor board and i work in bars and i don't really drink much yeah i hear you um i was straight edge
00:59:21.260until i was 25 which means that i didn't do any drugs and didn't drink so i'm actually not well
00:59:29.160versed in cocktails i i always there's a series on the the saq that's our liquor board on their
00:59:35.400instagram and youtube specifically on youtube it's easier to find there's a series that we did
00:59:41.260Selma and I, called Qu'est-ce chose de cute? So the whole thing is just something cute,
00:59:46.800because the concept is that I don't really know what I want to drink, but I know I want it to be
00:59:50.740cute. So when I go to a bar, I will ask them, like, what's the cutest drink? So all I know is
00:59:56.400that it would probably be sweet, it would be purple, and it would be available in an alcoholic
01:00:04.820and non-alcoholic variety and what would it do to you um i think that it would make you