Pattie Gonia Raises Over $1m For Charity, Hiking 100 Miles In Full Drag
Image: Pattie Gonia/Instagram
Drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia has raised $1.1 million for environmental organisations while hiking 100 miles across the Californian coast in full drag.
The 33-year-old spent the first week of December documenting their hike from Point Reyes national seashore to San Francisco, donning their signature red wig and bold eye with hiking boots and a sensible jacket, which they did to raise money for eight environmental non-profits aiming to make the outdoors a more “equitable place”.
They included Brave Trails, an LGBTQ+ youth summer camp, Vámonos Outside, which connects Latinx families to the outdoors in Central Oregon, and YMCA Camp Kitaki, a resident summer camp facility.
“Don’t let anyone ever tell you that you can’t make a difference,” they wrote in an Instagram post upon the completion of the hike. “When I started being Pattie, everyone told me I was crazy. When I told people I wanted to do this fundraiser, people laughed in my face.
“Seven years later and I hope I can be a little bit of proof to you that combining who you are and what you’re good at to fight for the change you want to see in the world works.”
Pattie surpassed their fundraising goal of $1 million, with almost 35,000 individual donations giving an average of $30 each.
“Each of our eight outdoor non profits are receiving $145,986 because of you,” they continued. “That is game changing money to them especially during a time when most every outdoor brand and our government is pulling funding.”
“Trans people are natural”
Earlier this year, Pattie was one of a group of trans advocates and allies to unfurl a huge 16 x 10 metre trans pride flag at Yosemite National Park.
“We flew the Trans Pride flag in Yosemite to make a statement: Trans people are natural and Trans people are loved,” they said at the time.
“Let this flag fly higher than hate. We are done being polite about Trans people’s existence. Call it a protest, call it a celebration — either way, it’s giving elevation to liberation.”
In November, they challenged the US Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, to a pull-up competition, after a video showed the Republican struggling to maintain the correct form.
“Hi Pete Hegseth,” they said in a video performing pull ups while in full drag. “While you’re busy trying to take away the rights of queer people, I’m over here advocating for the rights of all people, including my right to do better pull ups than you all with my balls tucked inside of me.”
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