Why Joy Is a Serious Way to Take Action | Pattie Gonia | TED

Hi, everybody.

My name is Pattie Gonia, and I am a drag queen.

But I am not the only person here in drag today.

You are in drag too.

Yes, you are in TED drag.

I see you, with your spunky business casual, with your glasses,

and tote bags that say "I absolutely donate to public radio."

Uh-huh.

Oh my gosh, I even see that some of you are wearing my merch.

Yes, Patagonia vests are indeed very TED drag.

(Laughter)

You can’t ask a drag queen to give a TED Talk

and not roast y'all a little.

But enough about you.

How about me and my drag?

Can we get a little commotion for the dress?

(Cheers and applause)

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

It is made of upcycled and thrifted shower curtains

and pink flamingo pool floaties.

Because life in plastic ...

It's not fantastic.

And climate change is a drag.

You see what I did there?

(Laughter)

But drag is about far more than what we wear to fit in or stand out.

Drag holds something more universal and more powerful for all of us,

because drag is an invitation to build new futures

through creativity and diversity and joy,

and the combination of these things.

Drag and climate, they seem ridiculous, right?

Well, I thought so too.

But then, six years ago,

on a backpacking trip in the middle of my quarter-life crisis,

lost in the forest,

I put on a pair of six-inch high-heeled boots

and strutted the trails for the first time as Pattie Gonia.

(Cheers and applause)

Thank you so much.

My ankles hurt.

(Laughter)

But if you would have told me then

that six years later, I would have a community

of more than a million outdoor and climate lovers,

and I'd be getting thousands of queer people outside every year

to connect to this planet,

I would have told you that you are crazy.

But here we are.

Drag took me in the middle of my flop era

and showed me how I could envision a new future

and then live into it.

And guess what else is going through a flop era

and needs to envision a new future and then live into it.

Anybody?

The Earth, yes.

Earth, girl.

You are in your flop era,

and the very thing that I think might get Earth out of this flop era ...

the art form of drag.

So, have I piqued your interest?

Would you like to hear and learn

what the climate movement might learn from the art form of drag?

Would you?

(Cheers and applause)

That is the spirit, my nerds.

OK, class, let's start here.

People often think that as drag performers,

we are hiding who we are.

But, babe, the one time I can't hide is when I look like this.

(Laughter)

Drag doesn't hide who we are.

Drag reveals who we are.

And drag welcomes our diversity.

And more than that, drag has given me a community

of people that I feel safe enough around to be my whole self.

And that is where the magic happens.

That's where I can bring my creativity, and everything that I am, to the table.

Now look, am I suggesting that you put on as much makeup as me?

No, you could never.

(Laughter)

But I am saying that our creativity is critical

in this climate dilemma.

And I'm also saying that diversity isn't a hindrance to this work.

It's the very key to our best solutions.

I will never forget, right after Pattie was born,

when I met a very famous environmentalist,

who said to me that I should just leave

all the gay stuff and high heels at the door,

and get to work for climate.

Well, thank you so much, sir, because six years later,

all that gay stuff and high heels

has raised 2.5 million dollars for climate action.

(Cheers and applause)

Thank you so much.

Toss ... toss.

(Laughter)

And y'all, I want to be real with you.

There are so many people right now, in this climate movement

who felt like I did.

Who don’t feel like they can be themselves

and therefore are holding back their best ideas.

And I want a climate movement rooted in fertile soil

that supports all of our growth.

And as my mentor José González loves to ask,

who here has heard the phrase

"This team is operating like a well-oiled machine"?

Anybody? OK, so all of us.

What if instead I said,

"Wow, this group is thriving like a well-nurtured meadow"?

How different does that feel?

Ooh, aah, uh-huh, hits different.

Maybe that's because we're not apart from nature.

We are nature, and we are a meadow, not a machine.

And a meadow knows that its diversity is its strength.

Every single piece of the meadow supports the collective whole.

OK, class, we are doing great.

A little check-in. Thumbs up in the audience.

We feeling good?

OK, if you're ready for a little history lesson ...

or should I say herstory?

Let me hear you say "Yes, mommy."

Audience: Yes, mommy.

Pattie Gonia: TED, you’re being silly today, I like it.

(Laughs)

Since the birth of the queer rights movement,

drag performers and trans people

have always been on the forefront of organizing and protesting,

and community building.

When queer people were beaten in their homes,

put in jail just for existing,

when we had the statistics and the facts

on the millions of queer people dying of AIDS,

yet no one was joining our fight,

drag performers turned pain into joy,

and in doing so, welcomed millions more people to fight with us.

Because the problem in the climate movement

isn't just the abundance of carbon,

it is the lack of joy.

The scientific facts, the doom and gloom,

they scare people, they wake them up.

But joy is what will get people out of bed every day

to take more action.

And if there's one thing I have learned from the art form of drag,

it's that you can take fighting for something seriously

without taking yourself too seriously.

Joy is a serious way to take action.

Joy is strategic,

because joy inspires momentum.

And joy is an inside job.

So what can we do to create joy?

We can get outside and encourage other people to come outside with us

and fall in love with nature,

because we fight for what we love.

In other words, if you feel dead inside,

get the hell outside.

(Laughter)

We can also connect people in this movement.

Because we all know that silos suck

and there is joy in collaboration,

and so many ... emails.

(Laughter)

You're laughing because it's true.

(Laughter)

And we can also celebrate climate movement.

We have to party,

because celebrating and acknowledging all the work that we have done

will inspire the next steps of action.

Joy provides an unbelievable opportunity

to make the climate movement irresistible.

Do not underestimate the power of joy.

We deserve more than doom and gloom,

because this is the only planet with a Beyoncé on it.

(Laughter)

[*we couldn't get Beyoncé to sign the release form, so this will have to do]

Facts are facts, TED.

(Laughter)

So, class, at the end of the day,

what I am saying, what drag can teach us,

is that creativity and diversity and joy

are tools to build the best climate movement we can.

And let's not forget -- let me pull this little thing out --

that climate change ...

is not a drag.

There, that's better.

Thank you so much, my nerds.

(Cheers and applause)

Thank you.

(Cheers and applause)