CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Pride month is here, and many drag queens are starting to show their true colors when it comes to living proudly.
Drag is the art of dressing and acting as another gender, usually for entertainment which includes singing, dancing, and lip-syncing.
Leona Lane has been doing drag for 50 years, and she said getting to that point was anything but a breeze.
“Oh my gosh, back in the 70s, being a drag queen was not easy. I’ve been stabbed twice and beaten with a bat just because I’m gay,” Lane said.
Only at the age of 16 Leona developed a huge love for drag after watching someone she called an idol for years.
“Julie Newmar from To Wong Foo. Julie Newmar was an ideal back in her day, honey. She was a pure sex symbol, and I loved everything about her. She was just glamour from top to bottom, and that’s the kind of queen I want to be,” she said.
She does not take the title of being the First Lady of Corpus Christi lightly because it is a great honor considering her violent past.
“They give me respect by giving me that title. The years that I have put in, the things that I have gone through and other queens my age have gone through, we paved the way for the younger generation,” she said.
Though life for Leona has been anything but glamorous, she wants to remind people that there is a rainbow after the storm.
“It's a big decision because of all the prejudice you may face. It's not easy being a drag queen, especially an open one,” she said.
Leona said that she is going to continue doing drag for as long as she can.
She will be performing at the Hidden Door bar for the rest of the month on Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m.
For the latest local news updates click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
