Pattie Gonia

So lesbianism abound, you know?

They're carrying their weight, I would say.

I really feel like the story of Patti goes back to my childhood.

I remember jumping off of a swing set when I was seven years old, performing musicals in my backyard, and I really think that's when Patti was born.

But I didn't claim her until about seven years ago when I went on this backpacking trip, and I decided to take this six-inch pair of high heels with me, and by accident birthed this drag persona.

But really, what was behind it was so many years of...

Connection to the outdoors via expression and femininity and my queerness and so much of this inner child that I was so at peace with growing up and especially found in nature that then through middle school and through high school, through sports, through Boy Scouts, through being called a faggot every time I would play a sport outdoors, I really learned to disconnect myself from nature.

I really learned to disconnect myself from nature.

this whole side of me that i loved and i'm so glad that patty brought that healing and inner child back into my life and brought a connection to nature with it and so much my work is rooted in wanting that same connection for other people

like i really think that so much of the problems in our world today are because we are so disconnected from nature and we're so disconnected from ourselves and that's why i really think that if we can heal ourselves we can heal the world that's why i think that self-love and coming to terms with who you are is such a gift to give this world and that's what patty's here to do

I feel like for me...

Now in adulthood where I'm at, I know that queerness is nothing but natural.

Queerness is in every ecosystem, on every continent, on planet Earth.

And the one thing that's unnatural is hate.

The one thing that fuels the destruction of not only this planet, but people on it, is hatred, is division.

And it's almost like why people in power hate queer people is because we are living proof of what it looks like to not divide a world, but instead to collaborate

to give and to get and to play our role in nature.

You know, nature's one goal isn't just to reproduce.

It's also to support the collective whole.

It's to see where we can collaborate, how we can play a role.