Latrice Royale is an LGBTQ Legend. Here’s Why.
A lesson in following the stage directions of the universe.
I have a little trick to get anyone — your mom, your frat brother, your pastor — to fall in love with RuPaul’s Drag Race. All you have to do is show them the Season 4 episode “Queens Behind Bars,” in which Latrice Royale becomes a drag superstar.
Any person with a soul will fall in love with Latrice from this point, when she finally has her breakout Drag Race moment, but what a lot of people don’t remember is that Latrice didn’t initially know how to play the scene. If you watch the full episode, you’ll see she has to be coached into delivering her lines the right way. With a little push from off-stage, a star was born.
Life seems to have been full of little pushes for Latrice, as well as huge ones. One of the most important wake-up calls came at a very dark time for her. While Latrice got her big break playing the part of sassy prison guard to perfection, it’s easy to forget she used to be on the other side of those jail bars.
Rather than go into the details of Latrice’s time in prison here, I recommend you catch her incredible one-woman show. She talks about the series of mistakes and poor judgment calls that resulted in 18 months in jail after being convicted on drug possession charges. I was lucky enough to see one of Latrice’s one-woman shows in New York City, and I can tell you the most moving part was when she talked about receiving a phone call from her brother telling her their mother was dying — and now was the time to say goodbye.
Sitting on the floor of a prison after saying goodbye to her mother forever, Latrice hit rock bottom. But Latrice finally accepted the message the universe was pushing on her. It’s the same message she shared with Drag Race fans and continues to embody to this day:
When she got out of prison, Latrice came back stronger than ever. After doing well on Drag Race (and being awarded the title of Miss Congeniality), Latrice hit the touring circuit to capitalize on all of the love that fans of the show felt for her. She also met her partner (they recently got married!), who gave her yet another push that changed her career.
I’ll let Latrice explain in her own words how the love of her life unlocked a whole new set of talents for her:
So one day, my partner Christopher was tinkering around on the piano and I was cooking, and he started playing “Summertime” and I started singing along. We got through the whole thing because I already know it, and he said to me “you know that you have something here, right”? He’s been encouraging me and I just practiced and practiced and we found out what sounded good for me, what fit me, and what my voice could do. […] All this has come and been so amazingly overwhelming and it seems like a dream sometimes. It takes a very strong person to deal with me and he doesn’t even know his own strength. I’m helping him discover his strength every day. He’s amazing, supportive and just so many things. I’ve never been with someone who’s just been my everything.
Latrice and Christopher make beautiful music together:
Did you ever think you’d see the day Latrice covered jazz standards? I don’t think Latrice did either, but I’m so glad she opened her mind to this new opportunity!
Latrice is loved in the LGBTQ community, well on her way to becoming an LGBTQ legend, because she is lovely herself. She is funny, fierce, brave, and reminds us that beauty starts from within and radiates outward like a beacon. But maybe what distinguishes her most is her ability to hear what life is telling her and adapt accordingly, all while remaining true to herself. LGBTQ people have always had to find ways to fit into societies that don’t accept them. The hard part is not losing yourself in the process.
As RuPaul would say, are you listening to the stage directions the universe is telling you?
LGBTQ Legends is a series I’m writing to try and figure out what makes someone special to the LGBTQ community. Maybe we connected with one of their songs in high school, or found their performance in our favorite movie to be truly moving. Maybe they’ve been fighting for LGBT rights for years, and we appreciate how far we’ve come with their help. They can be performers, politicians, or even fictional characters — so long as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people feel a connection with them. Let me know if there’s anyone you’d like me to profile!