Exclusive: Trixie Mattel Stars In SKYY Vodka’s ‘Proudly American’ Campaign

It should be easy to be a proud American. But each day the current administration drives us further and further away from the principles that the U.S. was founded on, alienating its own citizens and rolling back hard-won rights.

Starting this Pride season and continuing on after, SKYY Vodka is launching its new campaign, "Proudly American," featuring an optimistic batch of Americans from all walks of life. The campaign showcases the beautiful diversity of the country, stamped by an American brand. "The Proudly American campaign is about openness and inclusiveness with the belief that diversity drives progress," said Melanie Batchelor, Vice President of Marketing, Campari America, in a release.

Among the Americans featured in the campaign is RuPaul's Drag Raceroyalty Trixie Mattel, who has proven her bravery time and again. "We're at a juncture in American history where SKYY is able to acknowledge things that wouldn't have been considered brave 50 years ago," she said. "Being Trixie Mattel, this idiot crossdresser, operating in television, in the world of folk music - that's as American as it gets."

Mattel will be joined by other LGBTQ notables this month like Gus Kenworthy and Dusty Ray Bottoms sharing the iconic phrase, "Home of the Brave," as they all define their own bravery, and how that feeds into their American pride. "I've never felt brave while doing it [drag] and I guess that's the brave part," said Mattel. "You follow your own compass and don't second-guess it too much."

For Mattel, harnessing the courage to try drag led to the art form's own bravery. "You're not brave because you got in drag as much as getting in drag and transforming into this this other thing temporarily endows you with all this bravery," she said. "When you're dressed up like that you feel like the only bitch."

SKYY's "Proudly American" campaign launches today. Watch Mattel's spot, below.