Pride month was different this year thanks to the pandemic causing parades and gatherings to be cancelled.
That’s also caused an abrupt stop to the traveling schedule for Columbus’ famous drag queen, Nina West.
West rose to international fame while on the VH1 show, RuPaul’s Drag Race. Now she says she’s honored to use her platform to start speaking out for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Instead of headlining a Columbus Pride event in June for the 50th anniversary of the first march at Stonewall commemorating the uprising, Nina West also has to stay home due to the COVID pandemic.
“The party is just different this year and, actually, the party looks a lot more familiar to what it was I think initially the first year, which is protesting, using your voice for equality,” she says. “So what was now in 1969, now in 2020 is Black Lives Matter and using your voice for the Black Lives Matter movement. I think it’s really important to stand in solidarity and stand side-by-side with our Black and brown brothers and sisters and say that we support you and that we’re here for you and let me listen and tell me how I can help.”
Nina says being an activist means it’s critical for her to use her platform for change, especially for one group in particular.
“Black trans women are being murdered at an astonishing rate,” she explains. “It’s an epidemic within our country that people are getting away with the murder of Black trans women.”
Two were killed earlier this month, sparking more protests. To support the cause, Nina West has not only gone to multiple Black Lives Matter protests in Columbus, but she also released a duet for a virtual fundraising event for Black trans lives.
“The kind of oppression that I’ve dealt with is very different because my difference, my otherness is not marked unless I’m in drag,” West says.. “And I’m also Caucasian. My ability to move through space and society is very different than that of a person of color.”
The activist says the time is now to speak up and put an end to the racial injustice that’s been normalized, ignored, and deeply ingrained in our country for hundreds of years.
“People of color, Black and brown people are hurting, they are being targeted, they are being murdered, and we have a responsibility as a human race to attend to that, to attend to this call.”
Nina is also working to raise money for her Nina West Foundation that benefits LGBTQ youth with a new partnership with Dolly Parton.
The Kindness is Queen product launch will also benefit Dolly’s Imagination Library for youth literacy.
