Gia Gunn: Being a Drag Queen is Not My Reality Nor My Desire

A new moon arrived in Aquarius this month, and with it a renewed sense of confidence to create the kind of work you want to see in the world, per astrologer Chani Nicholas. I'm not sure if Gia Gunn needs a new moon in Aquarius to build up her confidence -- in fact, I'm sure she doesn't -- but it would still be quite auspicious for everything she's hoping to accomplish going forward.

In a phone interview conducted this week, the entertainer -- who recently competed on the fourth season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars, placing 7th out of 10 -- told me about all the projects she has planned for the next year. Based on what she told me, it sounds like she's booked and busy, and like any good Taurus she's focused on her goals -- so focused, in fact, that she seemed a little confused as to why I'd open our interview by asking how she was doing and how her morning had gone. "Is this part of the interview, or are we just chit-chattin'?" she asked. It was part of the interview, I reassured her, but then abruptly changed course to ask her about what she has been working on since shooting All Stars last summer.

Gunn, who's originally from Chicago but has called Los Angeles home for the past three years, says that she's working on a book, tentatively titled This Is Me, that she hopes to release sometime next year. She's also working on a one-woman show, also tentatively titled This Is Me, that she hopes to premiere before the end of 2019.

"It's going to take people through my journey using dance, theater, visuals, and of course drag, incorporating all of my talents into one show," she says. "I feel like I have a very long story that I obviously wasn't able to tell on All Stars," emphasis hers. That's one of the only times she mentions the capital-s Show by name, elsewhere telling me that she's curious to see where her platform will take her "outside of drag and Drag Race." Don't get her wrong, she still considers herself a "woman who participates in the art of drag," as she said on All Stars, and she's grateful for the platform drag and Drag Race have given her. She just wants more.

"I think a lot of the girls are very content with where they are. I think they're happy being drag queens, taking it day by day. For me, as a woman -- as a trans woman -- I'm thinking long term," says Gunn. "I think I've done what I can as a drag queen. Being a drag queen is not my reality nor my desire. I don't, by any means, want to retire from doing drag. Drag helped me get to where I am, but where I'm going is much more important to me."

And where is Gia going? That, she can't exactly say, though she trusts in "whatever my higher power has in store for me." Wherever it is, she wants to get there by advocating for her community, highlighting trans women of color, and taking advantage of the rare platform she's been given to bring visibility and confidence to trans people nationwide.

At one point of our interview, Gunn tells me she hopes that all of her hard work "will pay off someday." I'm confused by this. She's one of the most recognizable drag queens to come out of RuPaul's Drag Race, with a truly international, multilingual fanbase thanks to the second season of spinoff The Switch, where she tied for second. Does she really not think she's made it?

"Oh no," she tells me. "I still have way more to conquer."

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