Drag Queen Pattie Gonia Wants to Make the Outdoors More Inclusive
“I will advocate until the day I die for people to just get the heck outside,” says Wyn Wiley, who performs as Pattie Gonia and co-founded the nonprofit Outdoorist Oath.
“We need to completely redefine what outdoorsy means,” says Wyn Wiley, an environmental activist who performs as the drag queen Pattie Gonia.
Photographer: Hanna Anderson
On social media, Pattie Gonia can be found in high-heeled drag, strutting through the woods,swinging off cliffs, and singing about the climate on an Alaskan glacier. It’s performance art with a purpose: The drag queen — given name Wyn Wiley — is also a community organizer and co-founder of Outdoorist Oath, a nonprofit focused on making the outdoors more inclusive.
“The art form of drag is a performance art that was rooted and founded in protests,” says Pattie Gonia, whom Wiley started performing as in 2018. “I’m trying to take that performance art, and take that protest for queer rights — which I still advocate for — but also move it towards the environment.”