Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme reflect on the importance of chosen family this holiday season
The drag superstars sit down with Q’s Tom Power to talk about their internationally acclaimed holiday show
Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme are currently back on tour with another successful run of The Jinkx & DeLa Holiday Show, but this wasn't always the most wonderful time of year for the RuPaul's Drag Race alums.
For one of these queens, Christmas was a drag.
"It's funny because DeLa and I play distinct characters on stage: DeLa loves Christmas, I hate Christmas. But our actual backstories are the exact opposite," Jinkx tells Q's Tom Power in an interview alongside DeLa.
For Jinkx, Christmas was bolstered by her big-hearted grandma who was "the type to just take in everyone who didn't have somewhere to be."
"I didn't know it, but my grandma taught me about chosen family within my given family," she says.
"I take the experiences I had as a kid that my grandma gave to me and I pay it forward through this show now, because I was one of the fortunate queer kids in Portland, Oregon, who had a family who loved me — my flamboyant, clearly queer self. Like I was a visibly queer, visibly trans kid since birth. It just took me time to realize that. So I get to take that feeling and give that to my audiences now."
In contrast, DeLa was "very queer in a family that was not ready for that." On the surface, her experience of Christmas was picturesque, like a Norman Rockwell painting, but behind the scenes, everyone was fighting.
WATCH | Jinkx and DeLa's interview with Tom Power:
"I grew up in sort of rural New England," DeLa tells Power. "I come from a long line of Putnams, so you can look to The Crucible for more information on that….
"Going home for the holidays became something I just absolutely dreaded. Bless my father, he's a wonderful person and he tried very hard, and so I hate for him to hear this, but I created my first Christmas show specifically so I'd have a job so that I couldn't go home for Christmas."
DeLa's first-ever holiday show was held in Seattle on Christmas Eve. By creating a safe and merry holiday tradition for herself, she learned just how many other people were missing that sense of joy and community during the Christmas season.
I was one of the fortunate queer kids in Portland, Oregon, who had a family who loved me — my flamboyant, clearly queer self.- Jinkx Monsoon
"I think we did two nights and one of them was Christmas Eve," she recalls. "About 40 people showed up and a lot of them were queer folks who did not have a place to go."
It was at one of DeLa's early holiday shows in Seattle that she met Jinkx, whom she invited to take part in the performance.
"We always knew that you can sing a bunch of fun songs and you can tell a lot of body jokes, but at the end of the day, the foundation of it has to be really meaningful, and it has to be genuine because that's what people really are needing," says DeLa.
"All the music and humour is like a wonderful respite from this dark world that we're in. It's like a chance to take a little break from all of it, but it also needs to be nourishing, you know? But the bottom line always remains that this is a show, an event, that is about community."
The full interview with Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Jinkx Monsoon and BenDeLaCreme produced by Kaitlyn Swan.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
