This year marks the 10th anniversary Murray & Peter’s A Drag Queen Christmas and RuPaul’s Drag Race favorite Miss Congeniality, Nina West is set to host the big Yuletide extravaganza which will kick off in November and will make its across the country to 39 cities.
This marks West’s third time hosting Drag Queen Christmas and this year the lineup is stacked and will feature queens Angeria Paris VanMichaels, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Crystal Methyd, Gisele Lullaby, Jimbo, Lady Camden, Manila Luzon, Miz Cracker, Plane Jane, Plasma, Q, Roxxxy Andrews, Sapphira Cristal, Sasha Colby, Shea Coulee, Trinity the Tuck, and Venus.
In a recent interview with GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos, West is excited for the 10th anniversary of the show, which she also wrote a new song for. “I’m not here to reinvent the wheel, you know,” said West of hosting the show. “I mean, I’m at the helm again for a reason. [I like the idea of] bringing this warmth and wonderful idea of the season to people in person and also getting the opportunity to see drag that they’ve loved maybe on their television — maybe this is the first time they get to see it up close.”
She added, “Some of these cities that we go to don’t have clubs or bars necessarily that are bringing the queens in and so this is a great opportunity for many of them to see them for the first time.”
The tour will also stop in West’s home state of Ohio. She admits the midwest is a “sweet little spot” every time she tours. “I love that part of the country because people are so real and so authentic,” she said. “They just tell you what they think… but in a very midwestern way. So it’s Midwest nice — which I speak that fluently.”
As one of the most civic-minded queens that has ever appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race, West is fully aware of the challenges they might face as drag performers traveling across the country — especially in states that are neck deep in anti-LGBTQ legislation.
“It’s this weird surreal reality that I know we all are aware of,” said West. “We did this tour a couple years ago, I hosted it a couple of years ago and we were met with protests in every city from Proud Boys and from alt right conservatives and it was a reminder of how important it was to do the tour.”
West also talked to Ramos about her recent experience on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 9. She reveals that she had been asked to do an All Stars season twice before. For West, third time’s a charm.
“They got me with the charity!” she admitted. “They said we’re doing it for charity and you don’t go home and I was like… ‘OK I can still, I can still wear a bad drag and they can’t send me home.’.”
“We raised awareness for organizations like mine for the Trevor Project,” she continued. “And, you know, we raised a lot of money internally. We all became really tightly bonded and I think expressed this idea of what sisterhood means in the context of this specific thing… the eight of us, what we experienced was ours to experience.”
Click here to purchase tickets for Drag Queen Christmas.
