Ginger Minj was next on our list, and I was so grateful to be able to speak to her about the Orlando Ribbon Project she so ardently promotes. The company I work for wore the ribbons proudly as we marched at L.A. Pride this year, and it was amazing to be able to tell her that in person.
New Yorkers rise late is all I can say. Somehow between meeting Ginger Minj and deciding to line up to meet Shangela, the hall had become absolutely packed. After seeing on Shangela’s Instagram that she was getting on a plane to New York around the same time I woke up that morning, I knew she would be a little late. So with my place in line at her booth, I took off the horrendously painful shoes I’d decided to wear, and sat it out.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t recite Shangla’s Sugar Daddy speech in full, so meeting her in person and learning she was every bit as sweet as I expected her to be, was fab.
There weren’t as many queens in New York as in L.A., so in a smaller hall, but with the same amount of people in attendance, the lines for those who were there were getting crazy. It was difficult to decide where to commit to, knowing it was going to be a long wait no matter what.
After meeting up with some friends, we all decided that we would go see Ginger’s Makeover panel after absolutely loving the Jerry O’Connell makeover in Los Angeles. This time Ginger was be making over, Lactacia – the iconic 8-year old drag queen who famously read Bianca Del Rio on stage in Montreal (if you haven’t seen it, YouTube it now!).
The makeover was weirdly moving, to be honest – I’m always impressed by how quick and smart Ginger’s humor is, and we were screaming when she made over Jerry O’Connell, but you could feel the very real honor she felt at being able to make over this baby queen. She admitted to feeling pressure about doing a good job, given the real fear she had about somehow putting Lactacia off doing drag ever again, but she also spoke about how it made her realize exactly why she does her job – to inspire people like Lactacia.
Just as she was wrapping up, and placing a purple wig on Lactacia’s head to complete the look, Ginger casually told her she was going to be her flower girl. It only took a beat for the audience to realize what was going on. Ginger Minj was getting married – right in front of us! Her boyfriend Cee Jay came up on the stage, followed by Michelle Visage (she’s an ordained minister, don’t you know?) and before you could say “Yaaaas!”, Michelle had married them right there on the stage! It was an insane moment to be a part of, one I will honestly never forget.
We had noticed throughout the day that the process to meet RuPaul seemed to be a little different than L.A., and we’d heard a rumor he was leaving early on Sunday to fly back to L.A. for the Emmy’s. So before we called it a day we figured it would be best to buy our tickets to meet him the following morning. But unlike we had done before, we were told we couldn’t buy tickets for the following day. Only 150 tickets would be available the next morning for the whole day, so we knew we had to get there early and just try to be some of the first 150 people in that line.
Continue reading for “Day Two”
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