New York City's The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center threw its annual fundraising dinner, and of course Out was there to speak to all the queens!
The event honored the accomplishments of The Center and a change in leadership. Dr. Carla Smith was introduced as the new CEO of The Center recently, making them the FIRST person of color to hold the position. The Center also honored fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier with the Corporate Impact Award.
The room was filled with INCREDIBLE queer voices and even hosted by a handful of the queens from RuPaul's Drag Race season 16! It was a beautiful event celebrating this incredible community.
We got to chat with the Drag Race queens, as well as dance and ballroom icon Honey Balenciaga on the red carpet!
After coming off tour with Beyoncé last year, we asked Honey how the Renaissance era inspired her work ethic and craft.
"I knew that I had to put more effort, but especially more love into my craft," she told Out. "Also I don't owe everyone what they think I owe them. Even as I step into the limelight, so I'm just working on my own terms."
Honey has deep roots in ballroom, a craft that she has PERFECTED. When asked what her advice was to young voguers and ballroom babies, Honey laid down the law. "You want to be able to just keep a good head on your shoulders, as long as you are confident within yourself, no one is influencing you to do anything," she said. "Wear whatever you want to wear, you know stepping into yourself and loving everything. And also trying new things."
And of course, the question we all have. When will we see Honey Balenciaga put on a show again? Well Out has the tea!
"I have visuals for myself coming out, that's I've been creating like a dance album I would say," Honey said. "There's 7 episodes, I only have two recently. Next one is dropping next week, but I'm really happy to share that."
If you know what shade is, you know who Ms. Plane Jane is. After all, she has proved to be the queen of shade throughout the latest season of Drag Race.
But even the shadiest queens have a heart, and we asked Plane if she anticipated the season becoming so emotional for her. "No, I thought I was just going to be a ruthless, ferocious, heartless competitor the entire way through," she said. "But it gets you in unexpected ways and it truly is an emotional experience all around."
We could not let Plane go without a juicy question. Although she's the shadiest ON screen, we asked her who was the shadiest OFF screen. "I think that what you see is in this case what you get, baby," she said. "Dawn is pretty shady on and off screen. It's all in good fun of course, I love my sister Dawn."
We just have one thing to say.... kudos mama, for spilling!
This season of Drag Race is fierce, but we can all agree as far as couture looks go... Nymphia Wind locked it down. The queen is known for creating looks that belong on runways.
So it was only right to ask her what fashion house she would work with, given the chance. "Oh my god, so many," she said. "Alexander McQueen, Schiaparelli, Margiela, Hussein Chalayan, the list goes on. But the top of my list is definitely like Alexander McQueen or Iris van Herpen."
Nymphia has become an inspiration to so many, including her Asian fan base. When asked what message she had for her fans, she responded, "Thank you, stay strong and always express yourself. You know, as Asians, we're kind of like more mild and more quiet a lot of times. I found that if your too quiet, you don't get what you want, so sometimes you really have to voice yourself. Hopefully I have done a good job in representing the Asian community, because I feel like as Asians, we are so underrepresented in western media."
While most of us were devastated to see Q leave the competition, this queen is not going anywhere! We asked Q how she felt coming off of the season. "I feel great, it was a really good run," she told Out. "I'm really proud with what I did on the show, I think I showed a lot of great things and hopefully the world saw that."
During this season of Drag Race in an episode centered around Drag Awareness Week, Q created an outstanding gown inspired by Keith Haring's work, as well as the HIV awareness red ribbon.
When asked how Keith Haring's artwork and activism has inspired her, Q said, "I just loved the art that he made for his activism for HIV and Aids work in the '80s during the epidemic. And I think it was really impactful to our community and you know I just wanted to show that on the runway."
