It’s summertime, and who better to showcase this month in HerStory than a drag queen who is a huge hiker, outdoorswoman, and an advocate for both environmental and queer issues? That’s right, friends, this month, our colorway is inspired by the one, the only Pattie Gonia!
Pattie Gonia (pronouns: she/they) is the drag persona of photographer Wyn Wiley (pronouns: he/they). Growing up in Lincoln, Nebraska, the outdoors was always a part of their life. When Wiley came out as gay right after high school, they said they felt accepted up to a point (that point being as long as their gayness didn’t make those in their life feel uncomfortable). As long as they continued to present as straight, many folks in their life intimated, all would be fine. Wonder what those folks think now?
After a short dalliance with drag in early 2018 that ended in that most ubiquitous of modern hells, nasty internet comments/trolls, Wiley put their high heels away, but how they felt dressed in drag continued to nag at the back of their subconscious. On a whim, they tossed them into their backpack on a trip later that year, brought them out in the forest for a photoshoot, and Pattie Gonia was born. It wasn’t too long before environmental activism became a major part of Pattie’s lifestyle and online persona. Folded into Pattie Gonia’s advocacy for the outdoors has always been environmental awareness and stewardship, as well as activism surrounding LGBTQIA+ issues and widening access to outdoor spaces for all.
As a part of this advocacy, Pattie has founded and organized many efforts: she developed a job board for queer outdoorists; co-founded “The Outdoorist Oath”, a nonprofit working on diversity, equity, inclusion and environmental causes in the outdoors community; and partnered with major outdoor brands to build community and welcome marginalized folks into outdoor spaces. She partnered with the Audubon Society in 2023 for their pride month Let’s Go Birding Together (LGBT, get it?!), creating the most gorgeous music video (link here: https://youtu.be/Nuk55Z3e4hc?si=J9laJukHvAYB8MbN). They recorded a song with Yo-Yo Ma (celebrated cellist) and Quinn Christopherson (an indigenous Alaskan trans singer-songwriter) (link: https://youtu.be/2dKk1bIn8aU) about not giving up on the planet that had tears swimming in our eyes.
In all of her work, Pattie is inspired, first and foremost, by the queerness inherent in the outdoors, and their goal often is to take the masculinity that has dominated outdoor spaces and turn it on its head. According to her in an article in Outside magazine in 2023, “so many of my drag looks are taking very masculine outdoor gear and making it into the gayest little outfits you’ve ever seen.”
A little over a year ago, Pattie debuted a drag look called “The Pansy,” creating not only one of the most stunning pieces of wearable art we’ve ever seen, but also reclaiming a word that has been used to disparage and hurt folks in the LGBTQIA+ community. Mission accomplished, Pattie, because it’s stunning. AND, she did it in the forest, surrounded by nature. Here is a link to her Instagram video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkeGXJNjwU0/. We have been so inspired by Pattie that this month, we dyed up a Pansy of our very own! Our hope is that y’all create something lovely in this yarn at a drag show, on the trails, or, the perfect combo: with a drag queen ON the trails! Whatever you do with it, we hope you spend a bit of time with the lovely and inspiring Pattie Gonia this summer.
