Etobicoke’s very own Brooke Lynn Hytes is a force to be reckoned with. The award-winning superstar and host of Canada’s Drag Race sat down with Queer & Now ahead of Toronto’s Pride weekend to discuss her career as a drag legend, the importance of Pride and the new work she’s doing to advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ communities across Canada.
“I first started doing drag when I was five,” Hytes laughed.
“I used to wear a blanket on my head and pretend it was a wig. So I’ve been doing drag since before I knew it was drag,” she explained, sharing that her first time on stage, she was 19 performing at Toronto’s iconic Crews and Tangos.
“It was just electrifying those first couple years and even just going out as a young queer person, finally being old enough to be in queer spaces, because I grew up very Christian. So finally having the liberation to do that was amazing,” The Canadian queen explained, adding that growing up in a religious environment as a queer person was incredibly difficult.
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“You just don’t really fit in anywhere, and you feel like there’s something wrong with you because you’re different and you’re [considered] a sin and all that stuff. So I think if people aren’t careful, it can cause a lot of trauma.”
Since coming into her own, Hytes has gone on to have an incredible career. In 2018 she was cast as the first Canadian on the iconic series Rupaul’s Drag Race, finishing in second place. She currently hosts the show’s Canadian spinoff, Canada’s Drag Race.
DRAG AS A FORM OF PROTEST
While drag performances have been at the focus of many protests across Canada and the United States, Hytes says she personally has not faced pushback as host of Canada’s Drag Race. However, living in the states, the queen is all too aware of the challenges facing drag performers across North America.
“In the states where I currently live, it’s a big political topic for some odd reason, which I don’t really understand. Because it’s okay for kids to be around guns and be exposed to violence, but not drag queens. So I just don’t really get it,” Hytes told Queer & Now.
But it’s important that the show go on, because drag, Hytes explained, is a form of protest.
“Drag is a form of protest, putting it on is defiance. It’s challenging gender norms, it’s challenging social norms. So I think stuff like that is so important, and it’s just important for people to be exposed to other kinds of people and realize that other kinds of people exist and that’s okay, and that everyone has the right to be who they are.”
She explained that while living in the states can come with heightened opportunities for artists, as a 2SLGBTQ+ person and drag star, it also comes with heightened risks.
“There’s such fear mongering happening. There’s such a feeling like the scales have really tipped, the pendulum has kind of swung in the opposite direction, and now feels like the beginning of Handmaid’s Tale a little bit,” Hytes explained. “It’s just so important to fight and be vocal and vote and all those things, because things can get bad very quickly.”
PROTECT OUR PRIDE
The Toronto drag superstar is working with Freddie, a Canadian health-care service for 2SLGBTQ+ communities, on its Protect Our Pride movement, which launched in May.
“2SLGBTQ+ communities in Canada are under attack. From drag protests to anti-trans legislation in Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick, we are facing an organized effort to undo decades of progress. Our communities need protection,” the Freddie website reads.
Hytes is an ambassador for the campaign, which is a collaboration between Freddie and The Keith Haring Foundation. She explained that the focus is on safeguarding and celebrating Pride, and remembering Pride’s origins as a protest.
“It’s a celebration, but it’s also still very much a protest and a moment of reflection on how far we have come, yes, but how far we still have to go, and how much we have to lose if we don’t raise our voices and make ourselves heard.”
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Hytes explained why it was important for her to support Freddie, which provides services like gender affirming care, and access to medications like Pre-exposure prophylaxis, also known as PrEP, which can reduce the risk of contracting HIV, and DoxyPEP, which helps prevent bacterial STIs. Frankly, because access to these medications can save lives.
“Our community was ravaged by the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 80s and 90s,” Hytes said.
“We literally almost lost a whole generation of queer, amazing people and that’s why it’s so important that we have medication, that we can protect ourselves, that we have education to educate ourselves, and that queer people feel safe talking about their sexuality in a safe queer environment with someone who’s not going to judge them, and someone who’s going to listen to their problems and help them.”
