Ballroom: Where the Margins Take Center Stage

Ballroom isn’t just a competition — it’s a sanctuary, a rebellion, and a celebration. Born from Black and Latinx queer and trans brilliance, Ballroom flips the script on a world that tries to erase us. Everything we’re punished for out there becomes power in here.

Here, difference is royalty. What would get you mocked elsewhere earns trophies, cheers, and chosen family. Houses become homes. Mothers and fathers step in where blood family can’t. We don’t just survive here — we grow, we transform, we shine.

Haus of KFC: The Underdogs of the Underdogs

I walk with the Kiki Haus of KFC, a house for the ones who don’t fit anywhere else — the underestimated, the misfits, the glorious weirdos. Ballroom is for the rejects of society; KFC is for the rejects of Ballroom. And I love that. We thrive on the underdog spirit.

We’re mostly Latinx immigrants, which gives us a spicy edge — a mix of resilience, joy, and defiance that runs deep. KFC reminds me that you don’t have to be polished to belong here. You just have to be real. And real is powerful.

Realness: Reclaiming What Was Denied

Realness was born out of necessity. For generations, queer and trans people have been shut out of jobs, safety, and recognition. Realness said: Watch us do it anyway. Banker, executive, soldier, man, woman — we walk those roles society said we couldn’t.

For me, Realness is a practice. The armor of masculinity comes easy. Confidence — showing up fully — is the work. Each time I walk, I grow into myself a little more.

Bizarre: Sacred Weirdness

If Realness is about the world as it is, Bizarre is about worlds we’ve never seen. It’s where imagination runs wild — alien, surreal, limitless.

This is where I feel most at home. I tear apart trash and forgotten objects and turn them into creatures from other worlds. Bizarre celebrates what society throws away — and shows that weirdness is sacred. It’s healing, too. When I’ve been swallowed by depression, creating something gloriously strange has pulled me back to life.

Bizarre is my altar to possibility — a declaration that transformation is real, and that beauty lives in the overlooked and the odd.

Glimpses of My Journey

Here is a gallery of some of my Bizarre and Realness looks — snapshots of transformation, rebellion, and joy. Each one is a love letter to the Ballroom community that keeps pushing me to elevate and to the worlds we’re still dreaming into being.