LADY IN RED

A very upsetting weeknd. And yet another one leaves us. A mother, a mentor, a drag sister and a friend to many, Lady Red Couture has died.

 I was lucky to get to see her once when in LA, and she was known to put smiles on a lot of faces. She had an intresting life story, and very sad to say it's been cut short at 43. And gurrrrrl, she was a tower. At  well over 6'5" and a large presence,  girlfriend did her routines often in Converse sneakers instead of pumps!!!!! Demure and dainty were two words I wouldn't associate with Lady Red.

 

Lady Red was a pillar of Los Angeles’ trans and drag communities, hosting and producing shows like last year’s “Black Girl Magic.” She liked to describe herself as “a trans woman that lives as the largest drag queen in captivity” and the “largest live-singing drag queen in captivity.” Beyond the city she called home, she was perhaps best known for co-hosting YouTube talk show Hey Qwen!, in it's eight season, with Johnny McGovern. The pair interviewed all the top stars in the drag industry today, and Lady Red’s exuberant commentary, unmistakable laugh, and appetite for life have solidified her own place within the pantheon. Lady Red had been in intensive care since last Sunday due to complications related to cycling vomiting syndrome, a chronic health and rare condition she had . All week, McGovern had been crowdfunding on social media to cover her hospital bills and support her during recovery. Now, he says, those funds will go towards helping her family with funeral arrangements. 

 Lady Red Couture had been around  for a long time.  She’s kept busy during quarantine with her podcast and other digital drag offerings . She was also huge in the Los Angeles area for helping young queens find their place in the community and scene and once elaborated upon her motherly role mentoring younger queens, where she confessed, “I call it stealing their energy, because that’s really what it is.” In return, Mother Couture makes them dresses, beats their faces and bestows them little doses of well-aged wisdom. “I always tell them: Don’t live in muck and mire, because it’s unnecessary. The devil is on his job, so why shouldn’t we be?” She encourages her drag children to be precise in what they ask from the universe, because the universe will always deliver. In recent times she also became involved with the Black Lives Matters rights and riot's.

 Yet another fun spotlight goes off.