Why joy is a serious way to take action | Pattie Gonia

0:06You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Patagonia is a climate diva, a drag queen who tries to bring as many people as possible into the environmental movement. In her 2024 talk, she shows us how the creativity and joy of drag can and should combine to chart a sustainable future collaboratively.

0:35Hi, everybody. My name is Patti 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. Yeah, 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. 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? Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

1:28It 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? 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-heel boots and strutted the trails for the first time as Patty Gonia.

2:37Thank you so much. My ankles hurt. 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.

3:35So 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? That is the spirit, my nerds. Okay, 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. 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.

4:28Now look, am I suggesting that you put on as much makeup as me? No, you could never. 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 Patty 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 for climate action.

5:17Thank you so much. 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, Jose Gonzalez, loves to ask, who here has heard the phrase, wow, this team is operating like a well-oiled machine? Anybody? Okay, so all of us. What if instead I said, wow, this group is thriving like a well-nurtured meadow? How different does that feel? Yeah, ooh, ah, uh-huh.

6:07It's 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. Okay, class, we are doing great. Little check-in, thumbs up in the audience. We feeling good? Okay, if you're ready for a little history lesson, or should I say herstory, let me hear you say, yes, mommy. Yes, mommy. Ted, you're being silly today. I like it. it. 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.

7:01When 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 that I have learned from the art form of drag, it's that you can take fighting for something seriously without taking yourself too seriously.

7:55Joy 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. we can also connect people in this movement because we all know that silos suck and there is joy and collaboration and so many emails you're laughing because it's true 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.

9:00Joy 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 Beyonce on it.

9:24Facts are facts, Ted. 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 that climate change is not a drag. Thank you so much, my nerds! Thank you!

9:58That was Patty Gonia at TED Countdown's Dilemma event in Brussels. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today's show. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, Alejandra Salazar, and Tonsika Sarmar-Nivon. It was mixed by Christopher Fazey-Bogan. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.