‘Pride is about just really being free’: Advocate and drag queen shares why Pride Month is worth celebrating

Posted: Jun 6, 2023 / 08:18 AM EDT

Updated: Jun 6, 2023 / 05:29 PM EDT

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) – “Pride is about just really being free. The theme is be free,” said K’Bana Blaq, a member of the LGBTQ Community.

K’Bana Blaq at Portsmouth Pride Festival

Blaq is also a community advocate and music artist. Furthermore, Blaq is also known as a drag queen entertainer named Vivian Deveraux Valentine.

“I’ll never forget the night that I [first] did drag. I remember crying at the end of the performance and hearing the word, ‘freedom.’ A place that my sexuality could be a playground. Where I could jump on the swings and the merry-go-round. I could really be my full self and it wasn’t about like putting on a dress and makeup. It was that I had allowed myself as a person to be in a box, and to be what everybody wanted me to be for them and so it made me for myself,” Blaq said.

Blaq said freedom of expression is one part that Pride Month celebrates.

“It’s really hard in the world that we live in just to walk authentically as yourself. So to have a month where we can just kind of really walk and show our rainbow and to give our light. I’m really excited about that,” Blaq said.

Blaq hopes Pride Month inspires change to lessen LGBTQ hate throughout the whole year.

“My goal is always to build bridges instead of ditches. And to really encourage the community, to not believe the stereotypes and realize that we’re all on this planet together,” Blaq said.

Blaq participated in the Portsmouth Pride Fest, and did a drag performance at the I Am What I Am Festival (IAWIA) in Newport News.

Blaq even speaks to children as Valentine but knows that’s an act that everyone doesn’t support.

“When I do storytelling in drag, I tell the kids my favorite thing because I love going to the circus. I love clowns. And a clown’s job is to become. And to put on the makeup and to transform and to entertain, to have a good time. Drag is not here to influence or change or make children become something else. It is a form of entertainment and to me, it’s a job.”

When asked, what makes a good ally?

“I think to me someone that is willing to understand the price that it costs to be a person that I feel like if you can emphasize instead of sympathize. Then you really can be an ally,” Blaq said. “It’s a thinking and a commitment.”