Velour, who won season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2017, has carried that energy with her and created something special with her drag revue, NightGowns.
“I feel like people get shy at drag shows … the actors love to know what you are feeling.
“It’s a space of acceptance unlike anything they’ve seen before … it is so radical for people to experience for even half an hour.
“Pride to me is the history of queer people and I think it’s really important and cool that we have a fierce legacy of queer and trans people raising their voice against the system and fighting literally laws and policing and all kind of sanctioned violence,” she tells PEOPLE.
“I think that was really crucial because that is what the history is about: rallying for everyone in our community, which very much includes queer Black people.
Pride 2021 is celebratory, of course, but as anti-trans legislation is being passed in record numbers, it is also about continuing the fight so that others are able to feel that pride.
” aren’t alone,” she says.