I think that we've made a lot of progress in the years since the Stonewall uprising, and as far as equality for marriage and things like that go.Collection: Equality
Let us be kind to one another and be slow to anger.Collection: Anger
I think it's good for 'Drag Race' to be moving toward the mainstream. I'm grateful for the move to VH1. I'm glad that one million people watched the first episode of Season 9. Our message is one of love and acceptance and truth and strength and perseverance, and I believe it should reach everyone, near and far.Collection: Strength
Hold on to your dream; hold on to your dream - because if it can happen for me, it can happen for you.
As your newly crowned queen of Earth, it is my first royal decree that flats are sexy and nails are optional.
The House of Andrews really invented what we know as polished, glamour drag.
Why sleep when we can do drag?
I've certainly had to find a balance for myself and I have to now schedule months where I say, 'OK, I'm not going to travel during this month.'
I do believe the children are the future.
My mom knew that I was gay. So she just came up to me in the kitchen one night, and she said, 'Justin, are you a homosexual?' And I said, 'Yes,' and that was that. She took all the steps, she went to talk to a family counselor beforehand to see how she should bring it up, and now my mom's my biggest fan.
I think Christmas is a time for the whole family.
I wanted a song my 6-year-old niece could listen to in the car. 'Everyday is Christmas' sounds like a sweet sentiment, but in reality if every day were actually Christmas it would be a candy cane-riddled hellscape from which the human race could never awaken. So we're lucky it is just a lighthearted Christmas tune.
Drag is political.
Pittsburgh is an underdog city because it's been in a recession for a really long time, since the steel industry collapsed, so it has this underdog mentality. Yeah, there are a lot of people who are conservative, but I also think they want to rally around their Pittsburgh people.
Personally, I like drag that's a little rough around the edges, drag you can run around in it, drag you can get in the Uber without worrying about!
I can be pretty, I just prefer not to.
I think that my attitude about myself is something that I've been trying to work on - trying to be more positive and just believing in myself more.
I always used to dress up in little girls' clothes when I was really young. Then I realized that boys weren't supposed to do that, and I got really shy. I didn't do it for many years.
I was really scared that I would never be able to date anyone... because there was a huge stigma against drag. But the drive was so strong to do it that I was like, 'I don't care. If that happens, I'm fine.'
The thing about 'Drag Race' now is that you don't really know what's going to happen when it gets to the end of the season.
There's still an immense amount of discrimination that happens against trans people.
So pride is a time for us to say we're here, we're visible, we're strong, we're able to organise and we're able to activate and work together as a community to make change. That's what pride's about for me. And it's really fun too!
You can't control how you come across and if you try to then you come across looking like an idiot anyway.
I'll be in, like, Starbucks or something and I'll say my order and someone will snap their head around and go, 'Whaat, Alaska?! Hieeee!' I find it nice because I can be alone in a strange city where I don't know where I am, and then if a fan runs into me I feel like I am among friends and family.
I love drag so much and it's a huge part of who I am but there's also another side that hasn't really gotten out into the music and I'm excited to show that.
I want to make the world a better place, and I think we can all work together to do that.
Well, I love Britney Spears, and I condider myself to be Britney Spears.
I get to work a lot of times in nightclubs and large theaters, so I wanted to make music that is fun to perform in those settings. But I also wanted to contrast it with really serious, sincere ballads.
RuPaul is someone who I really look up to because he's very much a renaissance man.
Music is really personal.
I love 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians.'
I was like, 18 and it was in West Virginia because I was allowed to get into the clubs in West Virginia, not Pennsylvania where I was growing up. And we went in and there was a drag queen on stage and she was huge and beautiful, but she was lip syncing to a song. I was legitimately stunned.
It's always been that I feel more masculine in drag than I do out of it. I only get called 'ma'am' out of drag and I only get called 'sir' in drag.
I'm a giant person. I can't go and buy women's shoes in a shoe store. I don't even go in the shoe section because it just breaks my heart because the shoes are so beautiful, but they don't fit me.
Really, drag is like, 'Oh, I'm putting on women's clothing,' but it's just clothing. The people who assign it as being for women is the culture and society.
I think I first learned about Stonewall in Queer Theatre class at the University of Pittsburgh. It made me mad that queer people out at bars could be raided and arrested and harassed by the police just for being who they were.
At the end of the day and at the beginning of the day, I am a man who dresses up like a lady who is from outer space. Not everyone is going to get that. Not everyone is going to be on board with that.
I'm not a huge dancer onstage. In fact, I like not moving at all if I don't have to. But even just standing up for any given amount of time in 6-inch heels ends up leaving me feeling like I've been cracked in half like a rag doll after a few shows.
Meditation is essential. I try to start each morning with a focus on the breath and three things I'm grateful for.
If people are laughing at you, you might as well be in on the joke.
Straight people love to steal from drag queens. It happens all the time.
The truth is, people who have longevity are able to be aware of their public perception and take it and use it and make it work for them.
I feel like the theme song to 'Duck Tales.' 'Life is like a hurricane; it's a duck blur.' That's absolutely what it is.
If I could send myself a bunch of snake emojis, I probably would.
My perfect day starts with putting on the teapot. Then I have tea in my favorite 'Golden Girls' mug and watch 'The Daily Show.'
My mom was really good at swearing growing up.
Pittsburgh's definitely the city where I learned how to be on a stage, hold a microphone, and interact with an audience. It's where I got my chops as an entertainer and as a performer, so I'm grateful to the queer community there because they are active and vocal and they care about each other.
In show business, there's a lot of time when you're under contract, and you're not allowed to talk about things.
My biggest fashion tip for quarantine is, honey, just because we're homebound doesn't mean you can't put on a gown or a nice jacket, do your hair or put on a winged liner, just go for it.
Working out grounds you in your body and in the moment so if I'm ever feeling fuzzy headed a workout always helps check in with the moment.