04x04 - Oklahoma, Part 1

[bunniefuu]

[TV static drones]

[bright tone]

[bright music]

- Great news for Oklahoma:

people are moving to the state
in record numbers.

♪ ♪

- If you want to see America,
you got to see Oklahoma.

♪ ♪

- Southern hospitality
is a way of life in Oklahoma.

- We greet each other warmly,

and we say please
and thank you.

- Our public schools
offer quality education,

and crime rates are moderate.

- You'll find an ideal place
to put down roots.

♪ ♪

- This is just a place
where you can have

a really great life.

♪ ♪

- Baby, let me tell you.
[laughs]

If we were straight.

[dramatic music]

- We are here to judge you
by the Word of God.

You're an abomination
in his sight.

♪ ♪

- No other state has seen

more anti-LGBT legislation
introduced.

The battleground
is right here in Oklahoma.

♪ ♪

- Drag performers
could become felons

for performing anywhere
kids could be around.

- Now, it's been stated
by numerous Christians

and conservatives
that the LGBT

are coming for your children.

I disagree.

They're already here.

♪ ♪

[Lady Gaga's
"The Edge of Glory"]

- ♪ There ain't a reason
you and me ♪

♪ Should be alone tonight,
yeah, baby ♪

♪ Tonight, yeah, baby ♪

- Hey. Ooh.
- ♪ But I got a reason ♪

♪ That you should take me home
tonight ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I'm gonna run back to,
to the edge with you ♪

♪ Where we can both
fall far in love ♪

- Let's go!

- ♪ I'm on the edge of glory ♪

♪ And I'm hangin'
on a moment of truth ♪

♪ Out on the edge of glory ♪

♪ And I'm hangin'
on a moment with you ♪

♪ I'm on the edge, the edge,
the edge, the edge ♪

♪ The edge,
the edge, the edge ♪

♪ I'm on the edge of glory ♪

♪ And I'm hangin'
on a moment with you ♪

♪ I'm on the edge with you ♪

[cheers and applause]

♪ Put on your shades ♪

♪ 'Cause I'll be dancing
in the flames ♪

♪ Tonight, yeah, baby ♪

♪ Tonight,
yeah, baby ♪

♪ It isn't hell if everybody
knows my name tonight ♪

♪ All right, all right ♪

♪ I'm on the edge of glory ♪

- Come on! Come on!
Let's f*cking go!

- ♪ Out on the edge of glory ♪

♪ And I'm hangin'
on a moment with you ♪

♪ I'm on the edge ♪

- Let's go.
Let's go. Let's go.

- ♪ The edge,
the edge, the edge ♪

♪ I'm on the edge of glory ♪

♪ And I'm hangin'
on a moment with you ♪

♪ I'm on the edge with you ♪

[cheers and applause]

[dramatic music]

- Drag is incredibly disarming
for people.

They see the beauty

and the smiles
and the laughter.

- Did you ever think you'd see
drag on the sidewalk like that?

- No! [shouts]
- [shouts]

- That's the main message that
I want to share with people,

to let that spirit
of community

give you the strength

to put yourself
on the front lines

and to resist.

- Drag is not a crime!

all: Drag is not a crime!

[cheers and applause]

- ♪ Work and pop ♪

♪ Work and pop ♪

- I haven't skipped in forever.

Ooh, the skirt.

What do you have on
under there?

- Nothing.
[laughter]

Gays in the wild.

- In Tennessee...

- Well, it's a man and a horse.

- Working
with Jaida Essence Hall,

it was a life-changing
experience.

And here in Oklahoma...

- Are we early?
- Open your store. I'm g*y.

- Bringing in more voices,

introducing people to many
different types of drag...

- Well, hello, Latrice Royale.
- Aw.

- Is essential.

- I'm so excited
that Latrice Royale is here.

She is a queen that's not
gonna take no for an answer,

not put up with anybody's sh*t.

When Latrice is around,
we know the queen has arrived.

- ♪ Ooh, you like me ♪

♪ Yeah, I know you feel me ♪

- I am Latrice Royale.

My pronouns are b*tch,
honey b*tch, girl.

And don't call me
late for dinner.

- ♪ Work and pop ♪
- Hoo!

- ♪ Work and pop ♪

- He waved.

- Latrice is buying us coffee?

Oh, my God, Latrice.
- I mean!

- New girl's responsibility.

- Oklahoma is one of the most

conservative states.
- Yeah.

- Like, when you drive in,
you see all the churches.

- Everywhere.
They're beautiful.

- They're so nice.
- But...

- There's a church
on every single corner.

And that, to me,
is telling for how religion

is so infused
into day-to-day culture here.

- As the authority
that I have as governor,

I claim Oklahoma
for the name of Jesus.

- Amen.
- "My bill is not anti-anyone.

"It simply helps protect
those who have

"strong religious beliefs

with moral opposition
to g*y marriage."

- It would be nice
if there wasn't so many

hard lines drawn in the sand

between religion
and q*eer people.

- Yeah, I came up
in the church.

My mother was a minister.

As I started getting
into my sexuality,

and once I started realizing
that I was being ostracized

and being told
that I was doomed to hell,

it changed my perspective,

and I was like, this is not
the God that I love.

- Mm.

- It's so wild to me,
the, like, hypocrisy of it all,

the close-minded of it all.

- Every single h*m*
in our country,

they should be lined up
against the wall

and shot in the back
of the head.

- That's right!
- That's what God teaches.

- Weaponizing religion
to fuel hate,

it's really dangerous.

- We're doing a drag show.
Would you like to come?

- Drag show.

- Wanted to invite you all out.
- Thank you.

- Scrapbooking?

- Damn.

- Oklahoma is
an incredibly diverse place,

and it has
a troubled history too.

Black Wall Street.

- This is a place where Black
entrepreneurs were thriving,

and the whole Greenwood
m*ssacre happened here.

- The Greenwood district
was burned to the ground

by white supremacists.

- Do you feel like a lot
of people remember

what happened
in the '20s here?

- There are people
that live here

that have no clue because
it's been hidden for so long.

- There were so many
rich people of color,

and then they just
destroyed them all.

- Well, one thing about it,
we are resilient.

You can't keep us down, so...

- I mean, they can try, but,
you know, we still rebuild.

We still do our thing.

- The Greenwood m*ssacre
happened

over a hundred years ago,
and...

it's still impacting
the community right now.

- The oppression of people
for being different

is all over this state.

And it feels like the backlash
against trans people,

against q*eer people
is engaging with those themes

all over again.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[glass shatters]

- Vandals hit
a Tulsa doughnut shop

after the store
hosted an event

involving drag queens.

- You can see the man
hang up a letter.

- Investigators say that paper
referenced Bible verses

and had anti-g*y statements
on it.

[siren wailing]

♪ ♪

- The evidence
is right below you.

- Oh, my God.
- What?

- Yeah, that's where it landed.

- This is unsafe,
'cause this is her business.

- Every little sound scares me
and stuff, so--

it was nerve-racking.

- So sad.

It was just a fun event.

- Yeah.

- Who doesn't love
drag queens and doughnuts?

- You know,
the queens that I had,

they went into hiding
for a couple months.

It was really bad.

I've never experienced hate
like that in my entire life.

- Y'all are amazing.

- You are surviving and that
these doughnuts are real.

- Should we get some doughnuts?
- They smell so good.

- Can we get ourselves
some delicious doughnuts?

- Yeah, do you want some?
There you go.

- These are gonna be good.

- Visibility is everything.

We have to pop up.
We have to show up.

We have to be in these places
that are being challenged.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

We're gonna be loud and proud.

We're gonna be doing
lots of shows.

There's no way we're leaving

without them getting
some full drag, honey.

♪ ♪

[upbeat electronic music]

- ♪ Hey, hey ♪

♪ Skrr ♪

[alarm ringing]

- [groans]

[country rock music]

- My name is Kris Sipe,

and I live
in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I like my hunting stuff,
my fishing stuff.

Just a normal guy.

♪ ♪

I have a g*y son.

When he came out, I said,
I support you, son.

And I made a video about it.

Want y'all to meet
my son, Lane.

You know, as a father,
I learned a lot of things.

One thing I learned is,

I cannot tell my kid
who to love.

If my child is g*y, that's OK.

I was just being a dad.

[upbeat percussive music]

- Hey, b*tch. Hey, boo.
- Hi. Hi.

- I recognize you from TikTok.

- From TikTok?
- Yes.

- Oh, my God.
- You've come up

on my For You page
all the time.

And I saw your dad
had viral TikTok.

- Oh, yeah.
- Dad hug.

- Oh, my G--oh!

I want a dad hug.
- Yes.

- I'll tell you what I do.
I give the hug.

- Uh-huh.

- And I say,
you been checking your oil?

You got change in your pocket?

- Oh, my God.
No, I don't. Empty.

- You're a dad.
- I'm a dad.

I have a g*y son
who's 22 years old.

- When did he come out to you?

- 15.
- Wow.

- Well--

- It's amazing you made him
comfortable enough to do that.

- I supported my son 100%.

I didn't say nothing to him...
- Mm-hmm.

- 'Cause I seen
too many stories

of people pushing
their kids away.

- Yeah.
- And--

[somber music]

- I get it.

Well, hey,
we don't got to cry yet.

- No, not yet.

My son was 12,
and I knew he was g*y.

If he'd have told me he was
straight, I'd have said, no.

- You're not doing that.
- We're dating men.

- We're dating men.

- I didn't know any g*y people.
- Wow.

- I went to a g*y bar
and tried to find out

about the community.

And I found out that it
was f*cking just like me.

And every time
I'd ask them a question,

they'd, like, tear up,
and I was like,

OK, maybe I'm doing
something here.

My message about TikToks--

love your children
how they are,

and that was
my main motivation.

I didn't really know the impact
that it was making on people.

Well, they're protesting.

I kind of shook things up
a little bit.

[laughs]

Wanting us all to repent.

We give dad hugs.

Got a bunch
of followers from that,

and it's like, the path
just went right in front of me

and I just walked
down the damn thing.

- I love it.

Obsessed with you--
I'm obsessed with you.

- I'm loud, and I'm proud.
- Yeah.

- I ain't g*y,
but I'm proud as hell.

- Yeah. I love that.

So would you ever do drag?

- Yes.
- 100%?

- 100%, I'd do it right now.

- Would you be down if we just
go inside on the dance floor

and just kind of see
what you got a little bit?

Would you be down?
- Yeah.

[dance music]

- Whenever I perform,
I like to dance.

I like to be very sexy.

Can you do these things?

- I can rip this sh*t off
right now.

- Oh!
- OK!

- ♪ Slay, play ♪

- Oh, so horny, so sexual.

- I am so here for this.

- Yes. Yes.
- What are you holding?

- What are you holding,
a purse?

- I don't know.
- Was that a purse?

- I just seen that sh*t
up there, I don't know.

- Oh!
- Yes.

It's, like, arms up,
like, down your head.

Yes. Work.

- Yes, baby!
- Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yeah.

Over the shoulder
to the camera.

Make it strong.
Beyoncé. Bam.

Yes.

Wow.

Wow.
[laughter]

Oh, my God, you're amazing.

- Yes, queen.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

[door clicks open]

- Hello.
- Hi. Oh, my gosh.

Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you.

- I'm sitting here,
having a c*ck.

Would you like one?
- Sure.

Let's dive right in.
- OK, OK, yeah.

This is my boyfriend, Clifton.

- Nice to meet you.
- Clifton, Sasha.

- This is my assistant, Diana.
- Hi, I'm Diana.

- Hi, Diana.

Someone here is a painter.

Oh, my God,
it's signed with your name.

- Yeah.

- He's a really wonderful
artist.

- It's incredible.

- Yeah, I'll prop him up
since he won't do it.

I'm his assistant.
[laughs]

- I'm a real estate broker.

She is my assistant
in real estate.

But also,
we were best friends

before she started
working for me.

She's definitely
part of my chosen family.

I don't have
very good parents at all.

I'm very close to my siblings.

Our parents are just not--
yeah.

- Were you able to tell them
that you were g*y?

- Eventually.

I'm from a town--
a little suburb

in Oklahoma City
called Bethany.

- Mm-hmm.

- And it's, like,
run by the Nazarene Church,

the whole town is, and so--
- OK.

Which is a pretty conservative
church, right?

- Yes, ma'am.

[laughs] Yes.

Yeah, one might say, yeah.

The Nazarene Church
really instills in you

that if you are not basically
a white heterosexual person

that you are going to burn
in hell for all eternity.

I was struggling so hard
with admitting to myself

that I was g*y,

admitting to anyone else
that I was g*y.

- Yeah.

I heard the story
about the horrible attack

that you experienced
a few years ago.

It's heartbreaking.

Do you carry that
with you still?

- I did sue those people.

- You sued the people
who attacked you?

- Mm-hmm, yeah,
and unfortunately,

I have to respond

that it was resolved
to both parties'

mutual satisfaction.

- There was four people
that brutally attacked him

and were kicking him,
broke teeth, broke ribs.

They were yelling
h*m* slurs.

He was unconscious.

He had to go to the hospital
multiple times

over the next few weeks.

The settlement was nothing
that was life-changing at all.

It was a matter
of his peace of mind.

He talks to me often
about remembering

what it felt like
to be punched and beaten

while he lay on the ground.

I feel like he pulled back
into himself a lot.

It's just heartbreaking.

- And what was
the institutional response

from police or the hospital?

- Misdemeanor,
didn't really happen,

not that serious.

- It's a familiar story.

Like, we hear about anti-g*y,

anti-trans attacks
all the time.

But to really see those photos
of his beaten face,

to hear about how he was
left unconscious

is really, really tough.

I wonder if there will be
a day where

we can feel safe, not afraid.

So what does the prospect
of getting into drag

here in Oklahoma mean to you?

- I'm excited and scared.

I'm definitely gonna need
a few pep talks

before I'm actually,
you know, up onstage.

- I got you. I got you.
You're in good hands.

- [groans]

I feel like
when my incident happened,

it fractured my life.

There was who I was before,
and there's who I am after.

So I'm still dealing
with the effects of it.

I'll deal with the effects
of it for the rest of my life.

- Once you are focused
on the job of drag,

as soon as you're out there,
you're like,

I have a story to tell.

And you just focus on that
and step out of your nerves,

and it truly is so empowering.

I don't expect a night of drag

to turn everything around
for him,

and I have no idea
what Christian is gonna make

of his drag alter ego.

But my hope
is that our drag show

just can be a space
where he can talk about it.

♪ ♪

[singers vocalizing]

♪ ♪

- [ululating]

[plucky music]

Welcome to my home.

[laughs]

My name is

John Waako Hawk Ferris Co-Cke'.

[smooching]

I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
and it's home.

It's home.

These are my babies,
and I just love them.

Can you say hello?

[smooching]
She talks to me a lot.

You know, when you
live by yourself,

it's just kind of fun.

[light music]

I am a government member

of the Osages
and the Peoria tribes.

I identify
as transgender two-spirit.

I identify as he, she,
they/them.

I know the male world,
and I know the female world.

Getting in touch with
my culture and my native way,

it saved me.

It saved me.

It gave me a tool

to be free.

♪ ♪

- O75.

O75.

[indistinct chatter]

I16.

I16.

N39.

- Oh, my God.

Hello.
- Oh, gracious.

- Bingo!
- All right, let's see.

- How are you, beautiful?

Look at you.
Oh, my God.

- We need
the full introduction.

- My drag name
is Splenda Lee Delight.

- You have a drag name already?
We just sat down for bingo.

- All right, are y'all ready
to see some drag?

[cheers and applause]

Oh, I love the energy.

[plucky music]

- I have to ask you a question.

Are you the glam team?

- Huh?
- Are you the glam?

- We're the drag queens.

♪ ♪

I'm a jokester.
- Oh, my God.

♪ ♪

- Let me just share with you.


I came out in 1976.

I was going
to University of Oklahoma.

I have a p*nis, and I love it.

- I do too.
- We've all been there.

[laughter]

- I've never met
somebody like John.

[cheers and applause]

John is the most flamboyant,
effervescent,

confident, loud person

that I've ever met
in my whole life,

so much that they
won't stop talking.

- This is Southern.
This is moonshine.

No, I'm just kidding.

- I thought I was bad.

- Oh, God.

OK.

- Can you tell us
what is going on here and how--

- Oh, gee.
- You know, what it's like

to be g*y here,
a trans person, q*eer person?

- There's nothing in the rural
area for g*y people, nothing.

- At all.

- That's what I'm saying, baby.

- I have a question for you.
- Go, go, go, go, go, go.

- In the last couple years,
I've been trying

to educate myself
on q*eer history

and drag history,
and it's been really moving,

learning about
how many Indigenous nations

celebrated q*eer
and trans people

and saw us as,
it's like a spiritual blessing.

- The tribe culturally,
years ago,

embraced the two-spirit.

They loved us.

They wanted us.

Two-spirit nowadays,
they're condemning it.

The church has taken over
the tribes.

- Wow.

- Our tribes
won't even bring us in.

- Really?
- The tribes won't.

- I'm honestly shocked

the two-spirit community
was celebrated

and now,
because of a religion,

it's like
they don't exist anymore.

You can't just
silence something

that you used to believe in.

- It is this conservative wave
that's coming through.

- It started when--
you know what happened,

the orange turd.
- Mm-hmm.

- When he won,
they called me up here

at the transgender
support group.

People were crying.

People were freaking out.

People were--they thought
it was the end.

- Yeah.

- They thought they were
gonna be k*lled.

- It's scary.
- It's scary as hell!

We've been so splintered,
and that's something

I want to happen
in our community

is bring people together.

- It's the only way
it's gonna work.

- The only way, baby.
- It's the only way.

- I can't do it by myself.
I tried.

- It's the only way.
- But it nearly k*lled me.

I need people like you,
you, you, everybody here.

- John just feels
like a special person.

I'm curious about John's life,

and there's a lot
to get to know here.

- I can't tell you
how fun I am,

and I think
we're gonna go out--

- We know how fun you are.
- Well--

- I want you to know.
- Oh, thanks.

- We know.

You're fascinating.

I love your energy.

You're chaotic.

John could be
a really cool drag kid,

and it's gonna be
very challenging.

So wish me luck.
[chuckles]

- So I got into Julia Child's
cookbook.

Oh, you're gonna love
this story.