tranS Drag & Spirituality with Maxima Lyght

Maxima Lyght (he/she/them),  Los Angeles, California

You may have seen Maxima on HBO MAX Legendary (Season 3) representing the House of Lyght

"Born and Raised in LA Maxima Lyght and has seen almost every facet of it. A baby drag queen but experienced performer, Maxima likes to take the situation to the Max... ima. She does drag for Jesus and hopes to inspire future leaders.".

"Being part of a spiritual ballroom house I would love to listen and contribute to the conversation."

🔗 YouTube - https://youtu.be/_5cizhYVx5s
Instagram: @maximalyght
Venmo: @Gil-Rod

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🌐 a queer chaplain
Bonnie Violet, is a trans femme genderqueer spiritual drag artist & a digital queer chaplain.

Splintered Grace

Bonnie Violet & Tina Frank

Tina, is a conservative christian woman and Bonnie Violet, a trans gender queer drag queen. While many family members are choosing to no longer speak, we have chosen to sit at the table and engage in difficult conversation to find peace and restoration.

🌐 https://linktr.ee/aqueerchaplain

🌐 a queer chaplain
Bonnie Violet, is a trans femme genderqueer spiritual drag artist & a digital queer chaplain.

🌐 a queer chaplain
Bonnie Violet, is a trans femme genderqueer spiritual drag artist & a digital queer chaplain.

🎙 Drag & Spirituality
45 Drag Artists talk about their drag & spirituality hosted by Bonnie Violet

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Transcript

0:00
thank you actually uh
0:07
fought somebody with a Bible one time at the chairs of it at like the stairs
0:13
of a church and um because I was just so mad at like he was my best friend at the time
0:18
you thumped him with the Bible because I was just so mad at it I don't
0:24
even remember what we were arguing about but church was a great place for me um it was spiritual because I had an
0:31
extended family I had multiple moms and dads they would care for me and I realized that spirituality also meant um
0:38
like a village like a community like that was part of spirituality it takes a village to to rear a child they say but
0:46
um it is very true and I saw that firsthand um being from a lower class family
0:54
um we needed things and so they were always there financially you know for food and other
0:59
things and it was our it was a blessing to have those um
1:11
hey y'all going it's Bonnie Violet um and you are on the trans Spirit podcast and I just wanted to take a
1:18
moment to say um it's National Trans Awareness Month
1:23
November 2022 and I'm currently working on creating a new uh trans Spirit Series
1:30
where I'll be interviewing 12 trans folks from around the globe hopefully
1:35
um to hear and capture their um stories with spirituality and their
1:42
trans identity that's trans non-binary um intersex
1:48
um basically non-cis gendered folks or folks who might be in the trans umbrella
1:54
I'm kind of open to whatever but I'm really curious to understand someone's gender outside of the CIS gender world
2:02
I'm in their experience with spirituality um so I am working on that in the
2:08
meantime I did want to continue putting out some episodes so what I'm going to do is
2:14
um be uploading some of my previous interviews with drag artists who were also trans uh talking about their
2:20
spiritual experience and other episodes or interviews that I've done that involve trans people talking about their
2:27
spirituality I hope that you enjoy this and I'll keep you posted on the next
2:33
series and uh yeah I'd love to hear from you please rate and review that helps other people find out about the podcast
2:41
um and feel free to engage with the links in the description you can support the work of a queer chaplain and trans
2:46
Spirit by supporting our patreon um just go to go to the links check things out
2:52
I'm not gonna be believer this any longer enjoy the podcast love you and uh
2:59
I see you I feel you I'm so glad that you're in the world with me my trans
3:04
siblings
3:09
hello hi Hi how are you I'm doing really well
3:16
I'm a little nervous uh don't be you're don't be I I uh fumbled I'm kind of
3:22
fumbling around myself so we'll get through it together though we'll be fumbling this together right right so
3:29
glad that you could join me this evening thank you for inviting me what an honor it is to be here yeah yeah I was excited
3:37
when I saw that you were interested um and uh let's just go ahead and get to it
3:42
um uh let's see so I usually like to someone else is sending some love Danny Guerrero is sending some unicorns and
3:50
purple hearts so glad you could join us right that's that's the person helping
3:55
you right nice awesome all right so um I like to get right in uh with uh with just kind
4:02
of you know I try to go ease in really nice and easy and I want to hear a
4:08
little bit about your childhood and kind of what your experience was around uh spirituality
4:14
my name is Maxima of the House of Lights formerly known as
4:19
Glenn um he was born in Los Angeles and he grew
4:26
up in the church literally was born into the church um I had a lot of spiritual practices and
4:34
ideologies around me when I was growing up so I had a a very I had an idea early
4:40
on what spirituality looked like not saying it was the only type of surgery but it was one form that I had
4:46
encountered early in my life um being in the church um allowed me to
4:53
categorize myself in a way to be like what was good and
5:00
evil per se um so in that sense it was great for me to be like oh I understand a realm of
5:07
what everyone's talking about like obviously like No Stealing like novice and like no killing and like things like
5:13
that but obviously it um innately um I am an angry person yeah I knew that
5:20
from the start um so I was an angry child um so I would lash out in different ways
5:29
um but um I was still
5:36
intrigued I was still questioning everything and I think that's what I was just angry because I didn't know but
5:42
um more about my youth um I was great in school even though I was rebellious I
5:48
was an amazing a student um I was in the gifted or whatever and
5:53
AP and honors um but um it was great to challenge myself
5:59
academically and I feel like ice tapped out of my spirituality as in
6:07
my like teen years I started disconnecting myself from God the universe or myself per se I
6:16
started um looking for other things
6:22
do you know what kind of sparked that for you
6:30
I think it came from the fact that I didn't know who I was so I was um
6:35
wanting to know who I was and wanted to see my want and my needs
6:42
um but I soon saw that um some of my needs weren't necessarily what I needed
6:49
um but um I'm talking to Gerardo right now I should be talking more specific that's
6:55
okay I grew up in a Christian Church I should
7:00
be more specific uh so I would go to church like Tuesday Fridays Sundays like it was like a thing it was uh it was
7:08
family it was a great place to be I had a lot of friends there I would love going there because I had uh friends and
7:13
uh we would you know do what other people other friends did gossip and talk and play and fight actually
7:21
um fought somebody with a Bible one time and the chairs of it like the stairs of
7:28
a church and um because I was just so mad at like he was my best friend at the time you found him with you thumped him
7:34
with the Bible because I was just so mad at him I don't even remember what we were arguing about
7:40
but church was a great place for me um it was spiritual because I had an extended family I had multiple
7:47
moms and dads they would care for me and I realized that spirituality also meant
7:53
um like Village like a community like that was part of spirituality it takes a village to to rear a child they say but
8:01
um it is very true and I saw that firsthand um being from a lower class family
8:08
um we needed things and so they were always there financially you know for food and other
8:14
things and it was a it was a blessing to have those um Brothers and Sisters in Christ
8:21
uh from a very young age were your parents or your Guardians were they um super involved too
8:29
um my dad was not very involved at the church when I was first born
8:34
but as we speak now he is like semi a pastor
8:39
I don't know if he's like officially obtained a title because the old um the former Pastor is leaving the
8:45
congregation and he's the last uh male per se leader
8:51
um and so now he's you know teaching every other day
8:56
um during virtual conferences that we have
9:01
so it's been I've been surrounded by the church for a long time I still am I go to
9:07
church virtually and in person when I can um but yeah within the same tradition or
9:14
within the exact same tradition yeah yeah even though there are some things that I you know don't necessarily agree upon
9:22
and it might be because of like translation and things like that and you know I don't want to get too like in
9:27
depth right reality but yeah things like that but it doesn't mean that it um
9:32
scared me because it alienated me per se and that's what
9:37
I'm trying to say earlier by categorize me I realized that oh okay I'm different definitely being in the church it made
9:44
me realize that wow you are not like everybody else like nowhere near like
9:49
everybody else and it was eye Awakening in that sense I'm like maybe that's when it first started the spark of me trying
9:54
to look for something else it was within the church too like I want to disassociate myself because I felt
10:00
unwanted or dirty or because the certain rhetoric that was
10:05
being thrown in my direction how did you like as a young person who
10:11
was so into like so into it and got so much from it and then ended up kind of needing to step away how did you kind of
10:18
cope with that or was did something else kind of take its place or yes something else took its place
10:25
um drives took its place I feel like that's an easy Escape for a lot of people and
10:31
it was for me um I think it started with alcohol and I'm not saying like it's like a domino
10:37
effect but um no maybe because it was just young and naive and I didn't want I didn't know
10:43
what everything did I've heard what they did you know we all took the course of like drug addict and like blah blah and
10:48
we've seen the effects of like 20 to 50 years later and um we're all precautioned about the certain
10:55
substances but we still want to know firsthand those experiences and I did
11:00
and certain substances um overrode my spirituality for a couple of
11:06
years I'm now a recovering addict of methamphetamines
11:13
um it's a couple of months now I have relapsed but it doesn't change the fact
11:19
that I wanted to change and I realized how much better I am without them to be
11:25
even here and present in this moment um I think it's a gift from the universe God whatever you
11:32
believe in um because uh otherwise I would not be here
11:38
because I would be there doing something else yes it's so easy the entertainable
11:44
in our community and I feel like I want to be a beacon of Lights
11:49
and be an advocate for our community and be like
11:55
not judge but be like a supporter so yeah I want to be able to hand out um you know like those fentanyl test strips
12:01
and and allow people to and know those uh information
12:07
um so it's like a guilty free Advocate like yeah I'm gonna speak up my personal
12:12
experience on what happened and obviously I'm gonna warn you not to do it because of my experiences but also
12:18
here's other information that if you're willing to still do so to keep it safe and sound within it so it sounds like
12:25
you're you're you're working on abstinence for you but you're supportive of harm reduction as an overall practice
12:31
for folks absolutely absolutely and and was it is your spirituality is
12:39
that part of your uh sobriety or were you kind of back into like the church
12:44
setting before that was I wait the question was as so well
12:51
because we've we've kind of jumped a little bit and so I wanted to get a sense of like when did you kind of pick
12:57
up um church again and that sort of habit uh
13:04
I would still go to church like even like during my episodes like funny like
13:10
if you you know ironic like showing up to church and be like
13:16
tweaking out almost um yeah
13:22
I but I still stepped away because at that point I stopped my privileges because I used to have privileges but
13:28
they call privileges were like you participate and you pray in the front as a male identifying
13:34
um Persona um in the church we do that and so I stopped those Privileges and so in
13:42
that sense I stepped away from the church um but then when I was seeking my
13:48
recovery a couple years back um I did seek this church in the sense that
13:59
I wanted to be surrounded by people of faith and it was just the easiest and most
14:07
successful and most familiar location for me um it doesn't mean I won't participate or
14:14
want to go to any other sort of gatherings um and it was also uh easier because my
14:21
parents would participate and I would want to go with them so yeah
14:26
I totally I mean I totally relate to that I too had a similar experience of like loving church and then leaving
14:32
church and escaping and drugs and alcohol and then you know kind of like you know a lot of the journey that
14:38
you're speaking of is something I I you know it just reminds me of the journey I've been on too and so many of the
14:44
journeys unfortunately that we hear about um you know with folks in our community
14:51
and um and so so you are part of the House of light do you want to talk about
14:56
that a little bit and when I'm part of the House of life I am a
15:03
virgin voger I was invited to the house by father
15:08
lights last year around May no it was like a
15:14
little earlier like February and then um
15:19
I was just flabbergasted because I had been around people of the bottom
15:24
community and I've been to a couple of balls but I had never considered myself to be you know part of the community
15:30
until I was asked to be part of a house and I was thrilled at the opportunity because I mean
15:37
how many how many like what day do you get asked to be in the house and uh I
15:43
thought it was a great opportunity especially because uh if he was a good friend of mine all the light uh Riku
15:51
we had um guests together for many projects beforehand and had been part of
15:57
organizations that dealt with substance abuse and um that combined with the Arts so we
16:05
were you know he's an artist as well uh and so um he started the house and we and a couple
16:13
of other uh lines we would uh get together and practice and work on our
16:18
elements if we were voguing and our our strutting and our poses if we were doing
16:24
Runway and we would like work on our categories and uh then of course uh we were asked to be a
16:32
legendary and that happened I almost felt too much tea uh because they they did ask us to be on
16:39
TV and it was a wild experience because I mean uh to be on a show with other
16:48
legendary people it was like amazing I mean I got to meet Asha who's one of my like amazing like
16:56
it's just I wouldn't say idle because now I know her so it's like weird to like disconnect myself like oh I now I
17:02
met her and she's amazing and but yeah it was a great experience I wouldn't trade it for the world
17:08
and uh I still love not that I didn't not love my house at a new point but I love my house and
17:15
and I'm here for them and a big shout out to them for the lights and the rest
17:21
of Lights as well yeah and there's something a little unique about the house of light yeah
17:27
it is because uh good points I didn't mention it um one of the reasons why I wanted to join uh the house of light was
17:34
because it was gonna change The Narrative of what what we've been seeing in the community
17:40
it was like toxicity and a disconnect of community
17:46
and the lack of spirituality in in a sense and so he wanted to
17:53
bring a group of people that wanted to be one truthful to themselves but also
18:00
be a light in the world per se and so show their love and their energy and
18:05
their commitment to themselves and to our community Through spiritual
18:11
practices and realizing that we are together we are in this together like there's no need for
18:18
divide yeah and um I think that was a beautiful message that father is still
18:24
advocating to this day and there is also I mean myself and I
18:30
don't want to name anybody else but yeah myself that advocate for substance abuse and we're recovering
18:37
addicts and um it's a great place to be because
18:44
um I feel accepted I don't feel like I'm not
18:50
needing to explain myself I mean I do sometimes when we're arguing about choreography and why this should be in
18:56
this position but it's not about our ideal it's not about our morality it's
19:02
not about any of that kind of stuff more about like artistic goals that we're fighting
19:08
so uh I'm curious how has the um Ballroom community in general kind of
19:15
responded to uh that the house I know like oftentimes spirituality is such a
19:21
taboo in our communities and I'm curious how that how um I don't know I'm just
19:26
curious how that's played out for you all I feel like a girl's name that mixed
19:31
reaction especially having been on TV I feel like it was a very mixed reaction
19:40
um but I feel like the people that did see us for who we were and what we wanted to spread
19:46
um definitely were on our side and with diamas individuals lead into the house
19:52
and show us their love and I think that was one of the best things about being
19:57
on legendary that you got to connect with people around the world and I got to see your story and Recon and
20:03
connected to your story and um to be that person on TV to like you
20:09
don't get to see many queer Latinos or latinx or uh folk on TV so it was great too
20:17
see myself finally on TV literally I figuratively yeah yeah I really loved
20:22
that too like just watch I love legendary and watching it and then getting introduced to the house of light
20:27
I was like oh that's so like I've never heard of anything like that so I thought it was really great to think of the idea
20:33
of spirituality you know because houses like the house scene in and of itself is kind of great as far as the family
20:38
Dynamic and the community and you know those aspects so I I just had never thought about the spiritual aspect of it
20:45
before it's definitely something that we don't talk about even in our daily lives I
20:50
mean it's something like we are like like now we're like we don't talk about religion but it's like it doesn't have
20:56
to be religion per se it just could be you go to church like it's something that I do because it helps me like maybe
21:03
talk about oh well how your experience at the temple well I have other queer friends that do go still that are Jewish
21:09
prepared but I've yet to ask them because if they're relatively new friend but still I feel like I would want to
21:15
know their practices as well because everyone's story is different
21:20
it's good to hear other people's stories yeah yeah it's great to be able to have an opportunity to talk about spiritual
21:25
not everyone's really open to that um at all did was drag something you had
21:32
done prior to getting into the house or was that part of being part of the house I think that was probably one of the I
21:39
don't want to say another big reason but it was definitely another big reason for me because I've always had wanted to do drag
21:46
and Butch Queen up in drags is a category
21:52
and I wanted to compete as a drag queen all right what happened what kept you
21:59
from that not having a scene not having a place well I didn't think there was a place
22:05
for me and then now that I'm a drag queen I realize that there are a lot of places well I'm a drag King drag queen
22:12
drag monster but still there are places for drag artists in general and it has opened my eyes now working in
22:19
the industry like there are a lot of people out there that are allies and I feel like I'm used to
22:26
just being thinking of like a world that's full of hate and like Darkness
22:31
but L.A is beautiful I don't I think that is also the difference
22:36
that um being in La I'm exposed to so many people
22:42
but yeah drag um I was supposed to drive through ballroom and um
22:47
I almost exclusively compete in Drag uh when I walk virgin but yeah I love it
22:55
it gives me uh a sense of pride and it
23:01
is fun even though I do get stressful because I'm like well it helps me get the nerves out a little bit because I
23:08
just anytime I perform I'm just like and then like the two hours of just looking at myself in the mirror and being like
23:15
you've got this like you've made it this far like God has given you this opportunity to even be here and be a
23:20
drag artist like take the opportunity and like run with it right what is your
23:25
what does your spirituality look like now do you have like a practice at all or
23:31
I still go to church uh I read when I can the scriptures
23:36
um my practices include self-love I feel like that has a huge aspect in
23:43
spirituality because if you don't love yourself then how are you gonna love everything anything else around you and
23:49
I feel like being spiritual means being in tune with things that are around you that are not
23:54
necessarily you and um or oneself not like but yeah myself
24:00
and um my other practices include dance I love
24:05
dancing uh pole dancing is my one of my newer ones uh drag obviously is one of my the
24:13
greatest and all-time favorite um and I like to mix them no so I'm not
24:20
doing like Vogue pull drag shows and um yeah
24:27
uh the practice says I forget my practices include eating healthy are I
24:32
feel like I realized that self-love includes nutrition and I feel like
24:38
I'm like cutting back on like the junk food the McDonald's and I feel like that's um my body's responding and my
24:44
mentality is responding I'm also recovering from the trauma of abuse from
24:50
substances so I'm like trying to recover everything that I've lost per se and like rebuild myself because I feel
24:56
like I've been scattered I've just been like and I'm like yeah yeah throwing myself and back together per se yeah I think I
25:04
love that you brought that up because I think a lot of the times when we think about spiritual practices it's you know
25:10
it's prayer lighting candles or reading scripture but like I think for me as a spiritual person like every freaking
25:16
thing I do is kind of a result of my spirituality like all the things that have come about like me get doing drag
25:23
me transitioning was all a direct result of me beginning to like live a spiritual
25:29
life and it's really trying to put that first you know absolutely
25:38
yes I think we had a little bit of a glitch there with the the connection so sorry for that folks feel free to ask
25:45
questions that you might have um those who are watching there are folks watching I see you
25:51
don't be shy um I was curious about
25:57
um how your gender plays into like just can you tell me a little bit about your gender story
26:03
my gender story uh my gender story has been tumultuous
26:11
uh especially growing up in the church and realizing that I was queer I've had this disconnect with my male
26:18
identity and having always have the standard for
26:24
myself well from society to be like oh you have to dress a certain type of way or like or you can't you can't wear
26:31
jeans too tight like that's too girly like
26:37
um made me realize that I shouldn't give a question but yeah
26:44
I shouldn't give you two cents I should be paying it no mind
26:50
because at the end of the day it's closed and it doesn't have an assigned I mean gender is a construct and I
26:57
realized that early and having known that the intersex Community exists and I
27:02
feel like they're Erasure in history and Society
27:07
um is a sin in itself because God created
27:13
them and so therefore God created our community the gays and I feel like
27:18
we forget that they exist and
27:26
it also made me realize that
27:31
close like I was saying earlier like clothes don't have gender and it being the rebellious person I am I wanted to
27:37
kind of just people off a little bit by dressing differently and
27:42
also be like that person to be like you can do whatever you want because I'm
27:47
doing whatever I want in that sense like you could do anything that you can
27:53
and you should whatever makes you happy and so now I dress
27:58
why balls I would say I would dress definitely non-binary Femme and my daily
28:04
I'm starting to switch my because I well I've always just been
28:09
used to having just Male clothing and so I haven't updated my wardrobe so now I'm like having to like readjust my like
28:17
wardrobe and be like I'm not wearing that t-shirt today because why would I wear t-shirt today right right so you're
28:24
I know I know that your drag Persona you know you use up like he she and them pronouns and your day-to-day is it the
28:30
same or I believe so he's not bothering they're not bothered by it yeah yeah definitely not bothered
28:38
by it just because uh like yeah because as a
28:43
non-binary person well maybe because that's maybe it doesn't affect me because I'm non-binary and so I can switch to any Spectrum at
28:51
any and I could be super fam one second and be supermassed the next day like it it just depends on my mood
28:58
and how I feel and how I want to feel yeah it's do you find that difficult in your
29:05
spiritual settings or no yes very difficult in my spiritual settings
29:10
well in the church setting per se because I would say other spiritual practices would be like going to evolve
29:16
that's definitely a spiritual practice for me like being surrounded by my community it's it's like one of the biggest
29:22
practices I could probably do like and connecting with individuals and other members of the house and double o's and
29:29
hearing their stories and connecting just I think that's beautiful like surrounded by the folk and there's
29:35
nothing like it yeah um but what was the original topic of like oh yeah I don't feel in that sense in the church I don't
29:42
feel comfortable like like even with my hair sometimes like it's like if it's like too long like and if it's like down
29:51
I feel like I'm disrespected but I know I'm not but it's just like I don't want to be that person in the church because
29:57
I just feel like these people are too old school for me to talk to well because my congregation
30:04
is a little more old school and I just don't want to start anything with them because it's not worth either
30:10
of our times and so it's just to avoid the situation but yeah I wish
30:17
but that's something I chose like I know there are queer churches
30:22
like in Long Beach that have been invited to and I have access to like I could go down there
30:27
and dress however I'd like and be queered fast enough however I like and
30:32
feel great and um but I also go because my family yeah I don't want to say like
30:38
just because it's my friend but like I do love my family yeah anytime I get to spend with them
30:43
and then of course we get we have to sing together so it's like that's like uh
30:48
spiritual practice in itself like singing so and then got to sing with my family and like yeah it's great and acquire
30:55
like you know it's fun yeah Andrew I understand that I think it was really important for me on my spiritual journey
31:01
when I did find myself back into church to to have a space that was familiar
31:06
that reminded me of the church that I grew up in for some reason I just going to a queer Church
31:12
I don't know there was a part of me that needed to be touched by like being accepted and being loved in an
31:18
environment that isn't just for queer people um I don't know I for me I think that
31:23
felt important for some reason um in in my journey we we do have a question from the
31:32
comments um Veronica and Nashville who is one of our future guests asked do you
31:38
bring your spirituality into your performance I do I absolutely do my very one of my
31:46
very first uh drag pieces was about my sobriety and um
31:53
I like to bring my history what I've gone through to my performances and I
32:00
did a p a song on I forget the song name but it's uh
32:06
it's loose it's it's called lose control and it literally relates to my life that
32:12
I've lost control and um so for it was like a foreshadow piece but it's spiritual in the sense that
32:18
it's like um what is that word when it's uh it's not like a baptism but it's like a it's
32:24
like ah it's like a cleansing or I think the cleansing yeah it's like a purification like it's like I went
32:31
through this and I'm like going through it in the moment like Let It Go that's my art as I should be
32:39
as an artist I should just let my art going um I do bring it into my uh
32:45
my performances in my song Choices I do Vogue sometimes so I feel like that
32:52
is a spiritual practice in itself being kind um because I been
32:59
I feel like I haven't talked about that um My Dance Experience were like
33:04
my entire dance career or like training was so male European centered
33:14
that I was never allowed to dance like a woman until I was introduced to Vogue
33:22
and that in itself I feel like it's one of my um newer practices obviously as a virgin
33:28
voter um and I love it and I feel like it's I
33:33
need it because there's literally no other form that I could dance as
33:40
a woman right and have you like right has um what do
33:47
you what do you have you noticed anything that's changed for you in your life since you started doing drag
33:52
like about your day-to-day I feel like I carry myself with a
33:58
different air like your Maxima like
34:04
you were on TV like you put your story out there on that performance like not
34:10
I'm not even talking about I'm just talking about like even like my drag performances I'm just like you put that out there on my Polo performance or
34:16
you put that out there like you're doing it and you're still going out there and performing at the next spot like
34:23
I feel like
34:29
I'm more proud of myself than I've ever been in my life I feel like I've accomplished something
34:35
I feel like I've not necessarily found myself but I found a version of myself that I'm willing to
34:42
work with and adapt and grow with instead of hates and like look at and be
34:48
like why are you like this instead of I love you because of this and the way you want it and yeah
34:58
it sounds like you've been able to release some parts of yourself and express some parts of yourself that you
35:04
weren't able to for so long right
35:09
yeah I think that's what drag has allowed me to do has allowed me to realize that there are things that I
35:15
can't change like my face and I just have to deal with it
35:21
right but it's a good love because um now I look at myself completely
35:27
different it's so funny because when I do makeup and then like I'm like in love with it in the moment and then I'm like
35:33
okay it's time to wash it off and then I look at myself in the mirror and I'm like you did that like you transformed into
35:41
some like somebody else like that Persona was there and it's still there like as I'm still looking at
35:47
myself in the mirror I'm like she's still there right right I mean they're still there he's still there yeah all right yeah
35:54
yeah yeah it's I mean I I find it so empowering too and I think for me it was like getting into drag a lot it kind of
36:01
like gave me permission to try on different things uh that I kind of wanted to try on both like literally in
36:08
like the physical aspect but I think also just being on stage or changing how I express myself or present myself or
36:15
even tell my story you bring up a good point like they're
36:20
tired for sure it allowed me to wear feminine clothes drag when I first
36:26
entered um drag scene and the ballroom scene but now I'm much more open to a lot I mean
36:32
that's why I consider myself a drag artist and not a drag queer anymore um obviously a drag queen of Butch Queen
36:37
up and drags in Ballroom but um I feel like I'm open to
36:43
every style out there because there is no blueprint I mean yeah there's a blueprint if you'd like to follow a
36:50
group blueprint but then there's also the originals and um yeah it's a great feeling being like a
36:57
Pioneer in that sense like you could do whatever you want and be an original
37:03
and then have somebody else like Be Inspired because of you and be your original art
37:09
um but that's a great feeling as an artist uh in general I'm sure all artists feel that way that their work is
37:14
original and we all share that in common but yeah yeah what keeps coming up for me and I
37:22
sometimes don't like the word just because I feel like it gets used a lot but like authenticity like it seems like
37:28
you know you're getting an opportunity to to live more authentically or you know like kind of practice that
37:35
authenticity as a practice yes where like you know for a fact that
37:42
you know what you want in that moment and be like yes or no I feel like that's a very powerful
37:49
position to be in your life to be saying yes or no and not be aligned
37:54
I don't know I guess I might have to do it because no just be like I don't want to do it or yes I would love to do it
38:01
and I feel like authenticity is everything nowadays and I feel like that La gets such a bad rep with that word
38:08
they're like you people are just so fake uh and they're like well it's always people that I'm not from my life I'm
38:14
like yeah I know I know but um Drac has allowed me to be more authentic
38:20
for sure um with my even with my authentic with my practices and realizing that
38:27
there are some things that have to change like my eating and I was talking about beforehand like there were things that I needed to address and I'm glad
38:33
that I'm addressing them now because I feel like my mental health is also part of my huge part of my
38:39
spiritual practices where it's like I have to be learning something too like
38:46
that's like I have to engage my mind I love learning about like space like the James Webb like telescope like that's
38:51
definitely like one of my newest things that I love to learn about because it's just like feeding my brain and like I
38:57
love science and what scientists are doing nowadays and it's great for the human like
39:03
race per se that we're what we're doing nowadays yeah yeah I think sometimes the
39:08
what is mental and what is spiritual I think for me for a good part of my life it's hard to discern which is what like
39:15
I feel like they've always been enmeshed but it's been great to have and be able to notice and see that there is a meant
39:21
there are mental aspects and there are spiritual aspects and sometimes they're connected but but they're also separate
39:27
too um finnware says hello lovelies and Finn is in the Bay Area so glad that you
39:34
could join us um I'm curious do you have a stage that
39:40
you are like a dream stage you'd like to find yourself on one day uh yeah there's definitely I've thought
39:46
about several venues where I would love to like sell out one day and just be there performing
39:52
um I've thought about like the Ford I've thought about like this oh it's
39:59
called the crypto center now whatever they call them it used to be a staple center with the crypto.com arena uh my
40:06
dream stage will probably be oh there's so many good stages and it
40:12
would be for different occasions I mean I I for the biggest stage I mean
40:18
I don't know that's a good question that's a very good question that's okay
40:25
yeah um yeah I mean I feel like the sky's the limit sometimes I feel like sometimes
40:31
when I say this is my thing I think it's helpful to like say this is the thing but sometimes you know I think having a
40:37
clear idea of what you want sometimes can get in the way of like other opportunities that might come your way
40:43
you know hmm if I had to say
40:49
my dream stage would be
40:55
in Dodger Stadium
41:01
nice nice and you just off the top of my head my hair just because it's
41:07
it's a pretty big venue and masks won't be required if it were anytime soon so
41:12
yeah but um but I have a couple of comments here oh cool on my uh
41:20
awesome should I have not done that no you're you're fine
41:27
go ahead Uh Oh I thought they were oh they were saying
41:32
someone was saying on here I just wanted to say as a recovering human this is this life is super I'm so grateful still
41:38
taking steps to get off all the substances but the hard stuff is gone I hope for good ultimately thank you guys
41:46
friends so that's from IG Tori thank you so much
41:51
for um joining in on our up our live
41:56
um yeah shout out to all everybody else that said hi I think that's it yeah we are we are in
42:05
like the last few minutes of our time we're at like 42 minutes so I usually try to
42:11
try to keep it to about 45 but um is there anything else that you wanted to
42:16
talk about that we haven't got a chance to speak about today
42:22
uh I love to ride motorcycles and uh my
42:27
favorite color is turquoise and I love playing Pokemon
42:36
um now all the real stuff is coming out I'm a fan top um I don't know what else
42:43
you want to know that's all good uh how can folks how can
42:49
folks connect with you oh that's right um uh you can find me at Maxima light on
42:56
Facebook on IG and you can find me on
43:03
yeah on the house page on the house of Light page too if you know you'll see me on there too so
43:08
yeah Instagram is really where it's at yeah that's my main that's my main form of
43:14
communication so if you want to book me you know where to hit me uh yes hit them
43:20
up for sure well thank you so much for uh joining me this evening and being a
43:25
part of this summer series um super stoked that you were a part of the cast and
43:31
um yeah I just wish you all the best in your recovery and your journey and drag and you know spirituality so thanks so
43:40
so much um and I'm just gonna say goodbye to everyone thanks for joining us and check
43:45
out the links in the description to learn about uh next week's episode with Restylane Restylane pieces out of
43:52
Florida excited for that conversation as well so take care and tata for now
44:04
great episode that was do take some time and rate and review this episode or the
44:10
podcast in general also please do reach out and let me know what you're thinking about the podcast what would you like to
44:17
hear um guests you'd like to see on there are you interested in being involved in some way
44:22
um please do reach out you know right now this is a one-person show and I kind of do this on my own but I am looking to
44:29
really try to increase production and would love to bring on folks who are looking to to be editors or co-hosts or
44:38
guests or in other way involved sponsors in helping to make this podcast just so
44:46
much more uh sparkly and hopefully accessible to more and more people
44:53
please do like seriously like reach out if you're interested you're feeling
44:58
drawn to it this work can feel really isolating alone sometimes and just have having one
45:05
other person with me in some form or fashion really means a lot so thank you so much for listening to the
45:12
podcast and supporting the work of a queer chaplain take care and I love you
45:17
all so dearly bye-bye