In the days of old Hollywood, starlets used to be chosen out of virtual obscurity and given a ticket to fame and fortune. For Hormona Lisa, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 17 was her own golden ticket, finding herself chosen for greatness at one of RuPaul’s book signings last year, by Mama Ru herself! Hormona Lisa showcased a retro glam aesthetic with a luscious pink hue throughout and while she has departed the competition, fans are eagerly awaiting the Bubblegum Babe’s next chapter. Hormona Lisa and I sat down to chat about her Drag Race experience, her interactions with some of her Season 17 sisters, and why above all, authenticity matters most.
Michael Cook: Everything you seemed to do on RuPaul’s Drag Race seemed to be both informed and inspired by your family and that is simply beautiful to see unfold…
Hormona Lisa: Thank you. I think that is something…I am already getting emotional….that I am really blessed to have . As trans people in the South, a lot of the time we don’t have close ties to our family. Knowing that I do, especially my mom, I am really close to her and it means a lot to me.
MC: Speaking of your mother, your close ties extended all the way to your confessionals, where you wore a sweater that actually belonged to your mother during those interviews, is that right?
HL: Yes! My grandmother also actually passed away very suddenly and everything that I have that reminds me of her I definitely hold tight.
MC: No one has been snatched from obscurity like a Hollywood starlet like you were to be a cast member on RuPaul’s Drag Race. Your experience is definitely going to go down in herstory like no other after being cast by RuPaul during Ru’s book tour!
HL: I love that you say “like a Hollywood starlet” because that is what they used to have to do! Especially in the eighties, that happened a lot more, people would jump over fences to get noticed. I’m glad that you said it and not me that it was iconic (laughs)! I think that that universe told me that I was on the path to what I needed to be doing. I have a lot of degrees and it’s not because I just love school (laughs)!. I would start on one thing and then switch to something else, I’ve always done that. I’ve had a lot of different jobs, I’ve been a wedding florist, a photographer, a baker, a wood worker, a welder, I have just done anything. Drag is the first thing that I have ever done that brings in a lot of the other skills that I have taught myself and the thing that I have stuck with the longest honestly!
MC: During your season, you rolled with the punches and were able to be in on the joke at times, particularly showing up as Sadness at DragCon! Some of your competitors did have some things to say in their confessionals that you may not have heard up until you watched the show back. How did that feel?
HL: I am very aware of the things going on around me, I am very perceptive. None of it was very surprising to me. I don’t want to name names, but sometimes we might be in a van to go back to the hotel and they would see that was in there and then choose the other van or they would move a chair when we sat down for lunch and not sit with me. I knew that in that moment like, These people don’t care for me”.
I think that the only one that I was not expecting and that really hurt my feelings which I know is whiny to say as a thirty year old, is when Lana (Ja’Rae) said that I was “cunt”. I was like “Wow that is not grounded in any experience you’ve had with me, that is just something you are saying for a cheap shot because you think that I’m an easy target”.
MC: So your perspective is that when she called you “cunt” it was in a negative connotation and not in the positive that it is used frequently as?
HL” Oh no she deifinitely meant it negatively. That was the only one where I was like “I don’t know why you would say that”? People interpret things differently, so maybe I did come across as that to her.
MC: What do you think were your rose and thorn of your RuPaul’s Drag Race experience?
HL: My talent show was obviously not perfect, but I think that in the other challenges, even if I was not the best one, I think that I did approach the challenges in the way that I would approach the challenges. I think that sometimes there is this expectation that going into Drag Race, to sometimes not do things authentically but do them the way that someone wants you to do them or “play a role”. I am the type of person that operates my life genuinely because if I don’t do that, I don’t know what else to do. In any of the challenges, I did it the way that I was going to do it, even if it didn’t work out; that is what I like.
I know that there has been some discourse especially from Fashion Photo Review about my silhouettes. First and foremost, if you know fashion you know that a mermaid, a trumpet, and a fit and flair are three different silhouettes. They are very similar, I will give her that (laughs). I like what I like and I am not going to apologize for it. I do wear more than gowns, but I knew going into the show that that may be something that is said or that I wear too much pink. Also, that has been crazy because no one has clocked on the runway that I’ve had some element of pink in all of them expect for one.
MC: Pulling the levers for the Badonka Dunk Tank and being the first queen in herstory to drop Michelle Visage into the tank and save yourself from being eliminated is truly a game changer. What was it like for you?
HL: Yes! Without giving too much away, behind the scenes of Drag Race is a masterpiece, whoever put it together knew what they were doing. When you’re filming it, that it all you know, you wake up do Drag Race, go to sleep; that becomes your life. When you are eliminated, especially the first one out, it feels like metaphorically you’re life is over. It’s kinda weird, but when I was coming home you first think “What am I going home to”? Then I started to think, my partner is still there, my dogs are still there, those didn’t get taken away. That is really how it felt, especially being the first one. There is also this weird unknowing of how to react to it. Do I cry? Do I ham it up? If I do it too much, I won’t be taken seriously…Then you just pull the lever and Michelle falls into the water!
MC: Being a trans person from the South and being a strong person of faith, how do you juggle those things when they can be seen as so contradictory?
HL: I don’t know. For me, I don’t necessarily go to church every day and that is where some of the disconnect comes for people. I know who my God is, I know that my God loves my identity, and everything and I can separate God from the church. I think that is what some people struggle with. My dad is a Baptist pastor, so I did grow up in church four days a week and then one day a week to mow or sweep. It was such a big part of my life that when I became an adult, I had to learn how to navigate it. If I get rid of this, that is such a big part of my life and my upbringing that I am getting rid of; I think that is when I decided to figure it out.
I think faith and religion is personal and it is hard. As we all know, Christians that are homophobic and transphobic, they are nasty people and that they do it saying they are representing God which is not factual. I think that really does sour it for a lot of people & I totally understand that. That is what I just don’t bring it up unless it’s brought up. It’s not my place to “convert” somebody that is not what I am called to do. I think I’m just called to be a good person. I think inherently all people are decently natured-not all people, I shouldn’t say that because that guy in the White House is not nice-natured. Across the board, most people present and navigate in a kind-ish way. I think that my place with all of that is is to just be authentic.
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