Latrice Royale in "We're Here" Season 4. Photo courtesy of Greg Endries/HBO
Latrice Royale got her start doing drag shows in Fort Lauderdale, where she's lived for 30 years, but she's known worldwide for "RuPaul's Drag Race," along with its international tours and a Las Vegas stint.
State of play: Royale hit the road again last year for HBO's "We're Here," along with queens like Jaida Essence Hall, showing people in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, what drag is all about.
Before tonight's premiere, Selene from Axios Tampa Bay chatted with her about the art and activism of drag.
Question: You go into rural towns to show people drag isn't scary. But that in itself can be scary. Why take the risk?
Royale: It's important that we dispel those myths that we're scary people and demons and all that … It's always the people who don't even know or have a clue about drag that sexualize it. And then they want to bring children into the conversation on top of that, and then that just makes fear and hate.
