A drag queen with a message of hope about climate change

Hello and welcome to the AP Climate Watch newsletter. I’m Teresa de Miguel Escribano , video producer for AP’s Climate and Environment team. Today I’d like to talk about Pattie Gonia , a drag queen who wants to use joy and laughter to give the climate movement a makeover.

While world leaders, business executives, scientists and activists gathered last week in New York City to attend panels and forums at the annual New York Climate Week , a very different kind of event — a drag show — drew a crowd to Brooklyn with the same goal: fight the global climate crisis.

"Dressed in a sequin-laced, sleeveless top and puffy pink skirt, drag queen Pattie Gonia strides around the stage in white high-heeled boots that come up to the knees, telling the crowd that nature must be a woman", wrote Peter Prengaman , AP’s global climate and environment news director, after attending the show.

The performance , which included outfits largely made of reused clothes, combined dance, lip-sync and humor to raise awareness about climate change as somber statistics flashed on a screen, like 20 large corporations are responsible for a large portion of all the greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere and heating the planet.

Beyond being a performer, Pattie Gonia is becoming a prominent voice on climate, but don’t call her an "influencer." Gonia told The Associated Press that the word diminishes the true impact that artists can have in bringing awareness.

As Gonia herself put it during an interview with the AP: "We are cutting through noise that corporations with 100 employees can’t cut through." That’s how Brittany Peterson ?a video journalist on the climate team, found Gonia’s profile and decided to pursue an all-formats story on the performance, “Save Her! The Environmental Drag Show.” Climate photo editor Alyssa Goodman and video journalist Aron Ranen teamed up for the story.

Gonia’s efforts—at telling the climate story in different ways and bringing more people into the conversation, are like what many news organizations, including the AP, are striving to do with readers, albeit in different ways. While the changes happening to the Earth are important for the future of humanity, scientists, activists and others concerned about the future can struggle to grab the attention of societies that at times seem tired of the “doom and gloom” news about climate change .

Gonia approaches this in fresh ways. With over 690,000 followers on Instagram, Gonia’s posts and reels get tens of thousands of views addressing climate and environmental issues, like plastic pollution or forest management, all in drag.?

As Prengaman and Peterson wrote in their article, earlier this year Gonia teamed up with The Nature Conservancy for a punchy video on misconceptions about prescribed forest burnings which managed to get 210,000 likes, over 1,700 comments and over 14,000 shares between Instagram and TikTok.

Pattie Gonia manages to engage with the audience in a way others can’t – many times using humor as a powerful tool. For example, changing the lyrics of Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” song during her show to, “Baby, you are a plastic bag,” while pulling plastic bags from her breasts.

The packed crowd at Brooklyn’s House of Yes did a lot of laughing—and some reflecting on what they were seeing.

"I hear about climate change a lot, but this makes it more real, more tangible," said Heath Koch, a 27-year-old product designer who attended last week’s show.

That is ultimately Gonia’s goal.

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Thank you for reading this newsletter. We’ll be back next week. For questions, suggestions or ideas please email [email protected]

This newsletter was written by Teresa de Miguel, video producer for climate and environment, and produced by climate engagement manager Natalia Gutiérrez .

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