Before Patagonia sued Pattie Gonia over her name, she spoke about what it took to claim it

The first time Pattie Gonia saw a drag show, she could hardly imagine joining the performers onstage. In college in Lincoln, Nebraska, she watched queens at what she described as her hometown’s only gay bar. Their confidence stayed with her. So did the thought it provoked: “I could never give myself that much freedom or that permission.”

She eventually did. But freedom, she has learned, can unsettle other people.

“When I came out of the closet, a lot of people in my family or my friends were like, ‘How could you do this to me?’” she told Eric Eubank on the podcast I’m Feeling Queer Today! “And what I think I’ve processed now, what they actually meant to say was, ‘How dare you show me what freedom looks like?’”

Their conversation was recorded before outdoor apparel company Patagonia sued the drag artist and climate activist in January over her name and its use on merchandise. Released Thursday, the interview offers an account of the experiences and relationships behind the name now at the center of the dispute.

Eubank, a 20-year-old nonbinary writer who uses they/them pronouns, interviewed the drag queen and climate activist for the Future Perfect Project’s podcast, produced by LGBTQ+ young people. In a separate interview with The Advocate, Eubank said the pairing felt natural. Pattie Gonia’s drag and environmental advocacy, like the project’s work with queer youth, often attracts public attention without giving the people involved much say in how they are understood.

“They’re both often very dismissed and underestimated and used as talking points, but not invited to the conversation,” Eubank said.

Eubank first encountered the Future Perfect Project at 16. Their high school’s gay-straight alliance adviser connected students in Glendale, California, with the organization for a weeklong writing workshop. The students reflected on their experiences and ended the week by performing for community members, family, and allies.

At the time, Eubank said, it was a chance to voice things they had kept to themselves. Its effect lasted longer. “I think it was a space where I had permission to just share without having to filter and police my own thoughts and language and identity,” they said. The experience helped them see that they had something worth saying.

That history shaped how Eubank approached Pattie Gonia. They said their nonbinary identity is grounded in living as themselves without being confined by others’ expectations. They were interested in how someone else could take familiar structures — including expectations about gender, drag and who belongs outdoors — and transform them.

Pattie Gonia described growing up with expressions of love that came with limits on how she could present herself. She did not start doing drag until she was 27. By then, she said, she had learned to be openly queer while still giving up parts of herself to keep others comfortable.

“Love with conditions isn’t love,” she told Eubank. Drag gave her room to experiment beyond those conditions. “Drag at its best is permission.”

Related: Patagonia sues drag queen Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement

For Eubank, speaking with an artist they admired made that idea personal. The interview reminded them, they said, “that I do have permission to exist in the world how I choose to, and that power is no one else’s but my own.” The Future Perfect Project can offer young people a platform, they added, but it does not create their power.

That question of belonging runs through Pattie Gonia’s account of the outdoors. Nature was among the first places where she felt comfortable as a queer child, she said, before homophobia made sports, Boy Scouts and other outdoor experiences feel unsafe. Through drag, she returned to those spaces and began advocating for broader access.

At a 2024 rally in Washington, Pattie Gonia brought queer people and environmental advocates together to press for protections for mature and old-growth forests, then took the cause to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. In the podcast interview, she described a more personal aim beneath her activism: helping people see themselves as part of nature.

Her work has also helped her find people to share it with. Pattie Gonia told Eubank about meeting Oakland drag king Vera on a group hike. The two went on to create SAVE HER!, a drag show that has toured nationally. As some new relationships grew, others fell away.

“When I started doing drag, a lot of people in my hometown, home state, family decided to quietly walk out of my life,” she said. “That was really hard and really painful.”

The lawsuit has since placed the name attached to that work under scrutiny. As The Advocate previously reported, Patagonia alleges that Pattie Gonia’s branded merchandise and use of designs resembling its logo could confuse consumers. The company also objects to her 2025 application to register “Pattie Gonia” as a trademark for goods and services, including apparel.

Pattie Gonia broke her public silence in May, saying the case threatened her ability to use her name and could impose legal costs far beyond the dollar amount Patagonia sought in damages. The company says it tried for years to reach an agreement that would protect its trademarks. The parties dispute what they previously agreed to and what a resolution would require. Trademark lawyers interviewed by Out, The Advocate’s sibling publication, differed over the strength of Patagonia’s claims, including whether consumers are likely to believe the company is affiliated with Pattie Gonia’s work.

Related: Pattie Gonia: Patagonia is trying to 'bully' and 'erase' her with lawsuit

Eubank said they did not know the details of those negotiations. Learning about the lawsuit after their interview, however, reinforced for them how many obstacles can confront queer artists and activists, “especially in places that we might not expect them to come from.”

It also sharpened a question Eubank had brought to the podcast: Who gets to speak when queer lives become subjects of public debate? Young people, they told The Advocate, can come away from those debates feeling that their voices carry little weight.

“There are so many conversations about youth,” Eubank said, “but seldom do those conversations actually include the youth that are being spoken about.” Through the Future Perfect Project, they said, they learned that people would listen.

Near the end of their exchange, Eubank asked Pattie Gonia how she keeps working without burning out. She spoke about getting outside and finding people she can “exhale around.” Later, Eubank said the conversation had reminded them that joy belongs in difficult conversations, too.

“This podcast has been a reminder that joy has a seat at the table,” they said.

Watch the interview with Pattie Gonia below.

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