Symone Sees Drag Bans as Distractions: ‘Gun Violence Is the Number One Thing That Kills Kids’

For a drag performer with a stacked resumé, packed schedule and an ever-shifting wardrobe, Symone could be forgiven for seeming a bit tired. But while speaking to Billboard for a recent cover (alongside Maren Morris, Sasha Colby, Landon Cider and Eureka O’Hara), the only time the RuPaul’s Drag Race season 13 winner shows a hint of exhaustion is while addressing the rash of anti-LGBTQ laws spreading across the country like a virus.

“It’s a distraction from what’s really going on, what’s really hurting kids in the country,” she sighs. “Gun violence is the number one thing that kills kids.” It’s a point that’s impossible to argue: guns recently became the leading cause of death in children and teens between the ages of 1 and 19 in America.

“It’s a distraction. Gay people, trans people, our whole community has always been an easy mark. It’s easier than dealing with what’s actually going on in the country,” she continues. “Ultimately, they don’t want people to feel that they can express themselves and be different — or that there’s a different way of living outside of the norm.”

An urge to break out of the box was exactly what brought Symone to drag in the first place. Growing up in Conway, Arkansas, the self-described “shy, reserved kid” began doing her own makeup after school around age 16. By 18, she left the house in drag for the first time — to attend her senior prom.

A stint at a club on amateur night followed a few months later, and she’s been doing drag ever since. “It gave me permission to be myself,” she says of the art form. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is what’s missing in my life.’ ”

As one of the drag queens to be catapulted into cultural consciousness by the hit reality competition, Symone continues to operate by her own rules. She’ll walk the Met Gala one month, pop up in a music video (“Simple Times”) from Nashville singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves the next, all while continuing to chart a course through Los Angeles nightlife via the House of Avalon collective.

While the regressive laws aren’t exactly quashing expression in queer meccas like WeHo, Symone knows that other communities aren’t so lucky. “It was very strange. I felt like there’s a contention there,” Symone says of a recent visit to her home state. “It’s heavier, much more than it was when I was growing up… I felt safe enough to go to prom in drag 10 years ago, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I could do that now.’ It feels more conservative than it did even 10 years ago. And that, to me, is very strange.”

The queen is quick to clarify that the change in the atmosphere isn’t affecting her itinerary: “Is that going to deter me from going home and doing drag or going to the South and doing drag? Absolutely not.” Still, she notes that several of her sisters have begun avoiding drag performances in certain parts of the country because they don’t want to risk their safety by becoming “a focal point” for outraged — and perhaps even violent — people.

“That’s warranted, that’s very valid,” she says. “I just feel like, ‘We can’t let them do that to us.’ But it’s a very hard time. It’s a very difficult time.”

The Drag Race champ is aware that the privilege of expression afforded to her by her platform doesn’t apply to everyone. To queer kids living in states that are passing laws targeting their freedoms, she urges, “Find your family and find people who support you. You may not have them around you in your small town, but there is the internet — build a community and seek solace in that.

“Also, I will say: vote. We can have all the community and all the allyship that we want, but if we’re not voting into office the people that are going to look out for our interests, it doesn’t help. We have these laws coming down the pike because [anti-LGBTQ candidates] are being voted in, and so they feel like they can pass these laws. It’s going to keep happening. So go out in the local elections, midterms — it’s not just the presidential elections [that matter].”

As for where she finds solace these days, it turns out that one of the world’s most fashion-forward and inventive drag queens isn’t all that different from the rest of us. “When I feel bad, TV has always been my respite, my rescue and my solace. It’s how I found out about drag and pop culture, growing up where I did,” she says. “It’s my happy place.”

A version of this story will appear in the June 10, 2023, issue of Billboard.