Meet Flamy Grant | Shame-Slaying, Hip-Swaying Drag Artist and Singer/Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Flamy Grant and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Flamy, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
I’m most compelled to live out values that everyone knows, but seem to be lost in the world today. Values laid out for us in documents like the Declaration of Independence: “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” As someone who was raised in the Bible Belt’s fundamentalist evangelical world and is now a drag queen, I feel like I’m living these values in a deep way that so many of my fellow Americans do not. It’s unnerving and upsetting to see the unchecked hate and homophobia both in our society and in our government. To see how so many people are comfortable with letting the government control our bodies while at the same time saying a pledge of allegiance to the ideas of “liberty and justice for all.” The cognitive dissonance is astounding, and that’s one of the things I think drag can help with. Drag performance, for me, isn’t just a campy escape. It definitely is that, but it’s also my personal embodiment of these American values: to live, to be free, to pursue happiness.

Drag was in me from the very beginning of my life. As a child, I was compelled to play with mom’s makeup and stomp around in her heels. For decades, those impulses were repressed in me by a community and culture of shame, but when I finally started to explore them again as an adult, I experienced, for the first time, a level of life, liberty, and happiness that I hadn’t known since I was an unburdened four-year-old twirling in my mom’s skirt pulled up to my armpits.

I think one of my biggest contributions to my community is the ability to help people get their own life, step into their own liberty, feel their own happiness. Because that’s what drag does: it shows you how ridiculous the rules of gender are, how trapped all of us are by the binary idea of masculine and feminine. It helps us take these things less seriously, and in doing so gives us a chance to live more freely. To be happier.

We shouldn’t have to fight our fellow citizens for the very rights this country was founded on. But unfortunately, fear and shame still control too many people, who in turn want to control the rest of us, make us conform or hide or change who we are. As long as I have breath, I will fight for the American ideals of liberty and justice for all, even if that means helping my own fellow American see how much they have become the oppressor and enemy of these values.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a singing/songwriting drag queen named after arguably the most successful Christian artist of all time. In my house growing up we were only allowed to listen to Christian and gospel music, so as a closeted queer kid Amy Grant was my version of an inspirational diva.

I’ve been writing and performing my own music since high school, but drag has given me a whole new voice and way to channel my artistic energy. I’m releasing my first full length album as Flamy on September 23, and it’s a collection of songs about queerness, faith, and overcoming religious trauma. I believe it will be the first Christian record by a drag artist in history, unless we’re counting Tammy Faye Messner!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
In San Diego, the place I most want to spend my time are the uptown neighborhoods of Hillcrest, North Park, and University Heights. Not only are they diverse and queer-friendly, but you’ll find some of the best food and entertainment in town. Obviously, you’ll find me at drag shows at Urban Mo’s and Gossip Grill, and I love to see theatre and hang out in the cabaret bar at Diversionary Theatre – one of the oldest LGBTQ+ theatres in the nation. I love to get baked goods from Black Market Bakery on Adams, and just down the block from there is the best ice cream in the city at An’s Dry Cleaning (don’t be fooled by the name!). Pop Pie Company is a favorite for lunch, and you can always find a good show at Martini’s in Hillcrest. Honestly, I find it hard to make an excuse to go anywhere else in town, unless I want a day at the beach. Black’s Beach, for obvious reasons, of course!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband, Chris, first and foremost deserves the biggest shoutout for not only being supportive as I decided to try my hand at drag performance in my late 30s, but for championing me in every way, from helping me find gigs to zipping up costumes to carrying bags. Just being the best drag husband anyone could ask for! This was not in the cards when we said “I do,” so to have his support for this surprise turn of events in my life has meant everything.

I also have a strong community of friends who have done everything from tune in to my livestreams when I first started doing drag online during the pandemic to jumping on board my Kickstarter when I was raising funding for my album to buying tickets to my gigs and cheering me on. I’m so grateful for how my community has expressed their joy and support at seeing me come alive in this way. I couldn’t have done any of it without them.

Website: flamygrant.com

Instagram: instagram.com/flamygrant

Twitter: twitter.com/flamygrant

Facebook: facebook.com/flamygrant

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbgBGjEcEXcLa074iQsBNig

Image Credits
Photos by Haley Hill, Cotch Diaz, Colby Martin, and Kseniya.