How Jinkx Monsoon’s new tour is fighting back against anti-LGBTQ+ ‘witch-hunts’
Jinkx Monsoon’s new tour Everything at Stake is a direct response to LGBTQ+ witch hunts in America (Alec White/ Frank Rat)
Jinkx Monsoon has revealed how her iconic Drag Race All Stars 7 runway inspired a new tour, and how it’s an “act of resistance” against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
Monsoon – the only queen in herstory to win RuPaul’s Drag Race twice, in season five and in All Stars 7 – has announced her Everything at Stake tour, which is designed specifically to combat the current rising tide of vitriol against LGBTQ+ performers in America.
Everything at Stake was inspired by fan reaction to her All Stars 7 “All Glow’d Up” category, during which she walked the main stage as a witch tied to a stake, and completed by a burning effect.
Aside from the look itself being sickening, Monsoon told Entertainment Weekly that “it was the [fan] reaction to the burning dress that motivated the motif for this tour”.
Talking about the tour’s content, she explained: “Imagine stand-up comedy meets rock concert meets drag,” but added that it has a very serious message to convey: one that is a direct response “the f**king sh**show” of American society and “witch-hunts” against LGBTQ+ people.
Recently, Monsoon and other Drag Race alumni reacted with disgust as the Tennessee Senate gave support to a bill that, if passed into law, would ban drag shows in public places.
Republican senators approved the bill last week, which would see the state become the first to make it an offence for “male and female impersonators” to perform “on public property” or where they could be seen by minors.
“I’m going to find the parallels between the witch-hunts that existed in the olden days, when women were persecuted for taking on the patriarchy, and [what’s] happening right now with the queer, trans, and LGBTQIA+ community – the witch-hunt we’re experiencing as we take on the patriarchy,” Monsoon explained.
“It’s Everything at Stake because this is the most attention I’ve had on me in some time, and I want to show the world why I deserve that attention. That’s where it started, and since coming to this title, the world continues to be a f**king s**tshow.
“The title now has multiple meanings, of course, that will find its way into my work for this tour. I’m too loud-mouthed and opinionated for me not to bring what’s going on in the world into my work.”
Monsoon recently made more history recently, by becoming the first drag performer to be cast on Broadway in the role of Chicago‘s Mama Morton.
Everything at Stake, though, will be “less narrative, less a plot, and more like a showcase of everything that I’ve got to offer”, Monsoon said.
According to EW, there are high-energy numbers, pre-recorded video segments and new music from her upcoming album. She’s also bringing “new special props and set-pieces made specifically for this tour” on the road, all of which are “leaning heavily” into her “witch aesthetic”.
Everything at Stake isn’t meant to be all doom-and-gloom, and Monsoon hopes its colourful looks stand as a reminder of the LGBTQ+ community’s resolution to not going anywhere, even as attacks from “objectively wrong conservative a**holes” increase with “lies, tactics, and manipulation” meant to oppress.
“It doesn’t make me happy to stand up against that, but that’s what drag has always done, that’s what I’ve always done as an artist. And if anyone’s going to do it, at least when I’m doing it, it’s someone I trust.”
The tour will hit more than 40 cities in America and Canada, starting on 12 June with tickets available from ticketmaster.com.
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