ALL EXECUTIVE & STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS ARE VOLUNTEERS
Bonnie Violet, a queer chaplain
Creator & Director, Drag & Spirituality Summit
Boise, Idaho USA
she/her/hers
Bonnie Violet is a trans femme genderqueer spiritual drag artist and digital chaplain. She is a prolific YouTuber, Twitcher & host of a queer chaplain podcast (featuring series like Drag & Spirituality, TranSpirit & Faith Leaders). Bonnie co-hosts Splintered Grace with her conservative christian aunt and the CCC recovery podcast.
Bonnie Violet shares her experience of strength and hope about living with HIV, recovery from drugs and alcohol, and healing from sexual assault in classrooms, community centers, churches, and online. As a queer chaplain, she is present with people in death and dying to self by helping to lace your personal narrative with a spiritual thread to remind you of your resilience, strengthen faith in yourself, and create serenity in the now.
King Julez
Co-Director (Fundraising, Finance, & Booking)
Toronto, Ontario Canada
they/them
King Julez is a Masters of Divinity student, board chair for Affirm United/S'affirmer Ensemble, and future ordinand within The United Church of Canada. Their long-term goal is to be a drag clown minister, and help to bridge the gap between faith communities and the 2S-LGBTQIA+ community through education and the healing of trauma.
King LOTUS BOY
Co-Director (Accessibility)
Oakland, California USA
He/Him, Ze/Zir, They/Them)
LOTUS BOY is a shapeshifting, transgender and nonbinary, unapologetically disabled, Chinese-American drag king and anti-disciplinary artist based in occupied Lisjan Ohlone Land (Oakland, CA). He explores gender fluidity, accessibility, spirituality, and healing from trauma, through the mediums of poetry, lipsync, ancestral movement (qigong and tai chi), monologue, and original music. Zir work uplifts issues regarding ableism, anti-Asian racism, transphobia, and sustainability, often incorporating humor as a vessel of universal connection. With every performance, they aims to help the audience learn—or unlearn—something about themselves and the world around them.
Rev. KeroPatra InDenial
Co-Director (Accessibility)
London, Ontario Canada
(they/them)
Queer, Egyptian, non-binary, HIV +, gender non confirming drag performer and ordained Old Catholic Priest. Also a sexual health expert, substance counselor, HIV/Educator and former sex worker. I am a jack of all treads and proud of it. Homelessness and addiction will do that to you. You become resilience and find spirituality.
John M. Brett
Co-Director
San Francisco, California USA
He/Hym/Hys
IrReverend. High Priest of Fabulous. Poetry Fool. Connector of People & Organizations for Good. Street Chaplain. Artistic Dilettante.
Steering Committee 2023
Laiylah Alf Wa Laiylah
Programs Committee Lead
New Haven, Connecticut USA
( She/Her)
My drag is a combination of glamour and elegance with a definite nod to campy films of the past. I am always humbled by the transformation drag brings about . I read a quote once about treating everyone as if they were meeting God in drag. That’s a big order to fill but in drag I do my best for my audience to feel they are just that important.
Rev. Todd Atkins-Whitley aka Blessya Hartz
Programs - Spiritual Care
Oakland, California USA
(He/Him)( She/Her)
As a cisgender, male-identified, white, gay person born into two dominant religions (America and Christianity), I engage the art of drag to help heal the wounds of toxic masculinity and misogyny upon my body and spirit while also transgressing patriarchal, sexist notions of God that bring harm to queer people. Drag is a new form of spirituality for me and I have found it so far to be liberating. It has also allowed me, as a religious leader, to hold space with folx who have been traumatized by purveyors of toxic religion.
2022 Team
Bonnie Violet, a queer chaplain
Director, Drag & Spirituality Summit
Boise, ID
she/her/hers
Bonnie Violet is a trans femme genderqueer spiritual drag artist and digital chaplain. She is a prolific YouTuber, Twitcher & host of a queer chaplain podcast (featuring series like Drag & Spirituality, TranSpirit & Faith Leaders). Bonnie co-hosts Splintered Grace with her conservative christian aunt and the CCC recovery podcast.
Bonnie Violet shares her experience of strength and hope about living with HIV, recovery from drugs and alcohol, and healing from sexual assault in classrooms, community centers, churches, and online. As a queer chaplain, she is present with people in death and dying to self by helping to lace your personal narrative with a spiritual thread to remind you of your resilience, strengthen faith in yourself, and create serenity in the now.
King Julez
Fundraising and Finance Chair
Toronto, ON
they/them
King Julez is a Masters of Divinity student, board chair for Affirm United/S'affirmer Ensemble, and future ordinand within The United Church of Canada. Their long-term goal is to be a drag clown minister, and help to bridge the gap between faith communities and the 2S-LGBTQIA+ community through education and the healing of trauma.
Flamy Grant
Marketing Committee Chair / Ambassador
San Diego, CA
she/her or they/them
Flamy is a sassy, soulful drag performer in San Diego, CA, who will knock you over and bring you right back to your feet with a singing voice as bold as her lip liner. With a flair for the fantastic and a sacrilegious spirit, you’ll hardly notice how abominable her dance moves are.
Flamy is founder and co-host of Heathen Podcast, a show about breaking up with bad religion, and a songstress and musician who performs across the country. Her music tells a story of recovery from religious trauma and inspires you to become your beautiful, sparkly, spiritually-centered self.
Juan Pablo Herrera
Logistics Committee Chair
Chicago, IL
he/him
Juan Pablo is Pastor of Discipleship at Urban Village Church. He is currently imagining a new faith community that is bold, inclusive, and relevant but centered around Latinx voices as part of his work at Urban Village.
Rachael Pierce
Interim Virtual/Tech Committee Chair
Chicago, IL
she/her or they/them
Rachael Pierce is a community builder from the southside of Chicago. She’s a lover of history, black queer herstory to be exact; and as CEO of her production company, Pi360co, Rachael works to create spaces and platforms for queer BIPOC women to bravely share their stories and explore their spirituality.
Rev. Anders Nelson, he/they (Rhonda F'Plause, she/her)
Virtual Tech Committee
Wheaton, IL
he/they, she/her
Anders Nelson (he/they) is the associate pastor at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wheaton, Illinois where he’s been serving since the very beginning of the pandemic. Much of his ministry centers on queer theology and developing theological imagination through storytelling. He’s subsisted during the pandemic on learning how tasty vegetarian cooking can be, singing hymns and broadway numbers in the shower, and scheduling as many Dungeons and Dragons sessions as possible.
King LOTUS BOY
Accesibility Chair
Oakland, CA
He/Him, Ze/Zir, They/Them)
LOTUS BOY is a shapeshifting, transgender and nonbinary, unapologetically disabled, Chinese-American drag king and anti-disciplinary artist based in occupied Lisjan Ohlone Land (Oakland, CA). He explores gender fluidity, accessibility, spirituality, and healing from trauma, through the mediums of poetry, lipsync, ancestral movement (qigong and tai chi), monologue, and original music. Zir work uplifts issues regarding ableism, anti-Asian racism, transphobia, and sustainability, often incorporating humor as a vessel of universal connection. With every performance, they aims to help the audience learn—or unlearn—something about themselves and the world around them.
John M. Brett
Programs - Spiritual Care
San Francisco, CA
He/Hym/Hys
IrReverend. High Priest of Fabulous. Poetry Fool. Connector of People & Organizations for Good. Street Chaplain. Artistic Dilettante.
Rev. Todd Atkins-Whitley aka Blessya Hartz
Programs - Spiritual Care
Oakland, CA
(He/Him)( She/Her)
As a cisgender, male-identified, white, gay person born into two dominant religions (America and Christianity), I engage the art of drag to help heal the wounds of toxic masculinity and misogyny upon my body and spirit while also transgressing patriarchal, sexist notions of God that bring harm to queer people. Drag is a new form of spirituality for me and I have found it so far to be liberating. It has also allowed me, as a religious leader, to hold space with folx who have been traumatized by purveyors of toxic religion.
Sr. Merry Peter, SPI
Ambassador
San Francisco Coast , CA
(She/Her/They/Them)
Sister Merry Peters found her vocation through the Radical Faeries in 1987 and served as a missionary in Toronto before moving to San Francisco in 1999. Her life-long activism focuses on HIV-AIDS, queer youth, civil rights, and social justice. As a divinity student, she co-founded the first LGBT Student Union at the University of Toronto and led a successful national campaign against conversion therapy in Canada. Her efforts include partnerships to provide street-level health services to sex workers, transgender and gender non-conforming inclusion, legal aid for LGBTQ+ refugees, and resistance to police violence. She is a poet, writer, and former sex-worker. As an ordained minister, she joined the fight for equal marriage in San Francisco in 2004 and regularly performs wedding ceremonies. She lives on the coast with her husband of 22 years.
Angel aka Linda Summers
Ambassador
San Francisco, CA
((she/they)
Angel, AKA Linda Summers is a gay and queer drag performer in San Francisco who embraces beauty, glamour and principles. As a former Disciple of Christ, Linda now uses her platform to spread the message of love, empowerment and resurrection through the art of drag. Being a first generation Guatemalan means showing her family that drag is valid and nothing to be ashamed of.
jere (Jeremy Schulz)
Ambassador
Albuquerque, NM
(any pronouns)
jere self identifies as a queer survivor theologian, focusing on the intersection of spirituality, gender, sexuality, and violence, drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa's theories of the Borderlands to engage with individuals and communities existing "between worlds." After earning a M.Div and STM from Boston University, jere returned home to Albuquerque, NM where they have been working as a spiritual counselor with hospice. jere is excited to be part of Drag & Spirituality Summit, will be writing an ethnographic paper based on the event, and welcomes interviews and conversations exploring individual experiences of the spiritual dimensions of drag and queerness.
Rev. KeroPatra InDenial
Ambassador
London, ON. Canada
(they/them)
Queer, Egyptian, non-binary, HIV +, gender non confirming drag performer and ordained Old Catholic Priest. Also a sexual health expert, substance counselor, HIV/Educator and former sex worker. I am a jack of all treads and proud of it. Homelessness and addiction will do that to you. You become resilience and find spirituality.
Mark Bartishell "Barty"
Operations/ Ambassador
Chicago, Illinois
(he/him)
Mark was born and raised in the Chicago land area. He has a background in Musical Theatre and in Facilities Management. He is grateful to be of service, and looking forward to helping out this unique and exciting summit.