The three winners of the 2023 Nashville Pride Court are three things: Nashvillians, working performers and friends. Jupiter, Delta Granta and Salem LeStrange all perform at Play, with two of them in the U Be U Thursday night cast.
“I am your reigning Mr. Nashville Pride and Mr. Upper Cumberland,” Jupiter says. He’s 24 years old, and these are his first two titles. In October 2016, Jupiter started performing drag and also started testosterone. Nearly seven years later, he is a drag king who performs at Play on Thursday nights.
“I am Miss Nashville Pride and I am 26 years old,” Delta Granta says. Granta has been performing for 20 months. “We’re really proud of her — she just stopped breastfeeding,” Salem LeStrange jokes. Granta and Adhara Bull are the “twinners” of the fourth cycle of SiSSi, Nashville’s drag competition. “I started doing SiSSi after a couple of months in drag, and I did all four cycles until I won,” Granta says.
“I have been doing drag for eight years, and I am the very first Mx. Nashville Pride,” Salem LeStrange says. LeStrange is 26 and this is her first title, and it’s the first year for the new Mx. award. LeStrange is a cisgender woman, and a lot of people refer to her as a drag queen, drag performer or diva. She likes to mix it up, performing as both male and female characters. Now that she has this title, she can’t wait to continue pushing gender boundaries with her performance.
Best friends for five years, Jupiter and LeStrange became a couple in 2021. When I ask Jupiter about his biggest supporters, he looks at Salem — she puts her hand on his leg.
“There is a distinction between how we hold cis drag queens at this high level up here, and then everybody else down here,” Jupiter says. “With all these laws coming into place, we really all came together, and we reunited. You realize how many cis queens are like, ‘No, you're gonna treat all of our performers — trans, cis, non binary, everything in between — you're gonna treat them with love and respect the same way y'all respect us.’”
Delta noticed how Tennessee’s laws targeting the LGBTQ community made the drag scene stronger. “Before people were like, ‘Oh yeah, drag is cool, but I'm not gonna go to a show,’” Granta says. “Now they’re taking the initiative to be like, ‘I'm gonna actually go to a brunch because these politicians are infringing on their rights. And I'm gonna support them.’”
Salem knows people are going to take issue with drag performers and be outspoken with their hate. “We have the blessing of having somewhere to go to be with a group of people just like us, that support us, that love us,” LeStrange says. She notes that people do bring their kids because they want their kids to understand that people are different and that's OK.
“It feels so good to be back in a place of comfort and knowing we get to have our Pride,” LeStrange says. “We get to create a safe space for others. I get to host on a stage this year and people get to see that. I hope there are little girls out there like me that see, ‘Hey, guess what, you get to do this too if you want, you don't have to be a boy to do this.’”
Jupiter reminds us that this is what drag’s about: Regardless of your gender, regardless of what you're presenting onstage, as long as you are comfortable, happy and competent in what you are doing, you're going to have a damn good time.
Plus we chat with hometown queen Aura Mayari and delve into the history of Play
