Birds aren't even safe from the Left's woke insanity.
The National Audubon Society is featuring a drag queen dressed in a bird costume prancing around an empty field for Pride Month. That's the simplest way to describe this performative art if that's what the kids call it nowadays. "Intersectional environmentalist" Pattie Gonia, a drag performer and "professional homosexual" named after ultra-liberal activewear retailer Patagonia, stars in the two-minute slam poetry-style video now suffering a heavy ratio on social media, titled, "#BirdsTellUs: The Song of the Meadowlark, a message of hope for the future of our planet as we face climate change—if we choose to listen."
This #PrideMonth, Audubon partnered with drag queen and intersectional environmentalist Pattie Gonia to bring you #BirdsTellUs: The Song of the Meadowlark, a message of hope for the future of our planet as we face climate change—if we choose to listen: https://t.co/RGHzJTXGgS pic.twitter.com/UxNW066NL4
— Audubon Society (@audubonsociety) June 13, 2022
Critics have flocked to the replies on the bird-watching organizer's tweet to mock the artistic performance. "This ideology really has to get into every single field, doesn't it? Can't we just enjoy birds anymore[?]" a Twitter user asked. Another joked that the National Audubon Society flies in circles because it's "all left-wing."
The non-profit dedicated to the conservation of birds spotlights the Midwestern drag artist to "invite the LGBTQIA community outdoors" and "ensure they have a safe and welcoming experience while there." As part of the collaboration to also "tell the story of climate change in the heartland," the National Audubon Society is releasing the first two of four videos celebrating Pride Month on June 13 and 21.
When asked how the queer and environmental movements are related, Gonia says in a National Audubon Society press release Tuesday, "No planet, no Pride!" Gonia argues that left-wing activists well-versed in social justice should cross-pollinate the liberal causes. "You don't have to run to a big city to find yourself!" Gonia tells members of the LGBTQ+ community-dwelling in urban progressive areas.
In the video, as clips of real birds are interspersed, Gonia mimics the wing movement of birds, gallivanting with arms stretched out and spinning in circles on a hill like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. (Gonia has also recreated the famous scene, belting: "The hills are alive with the sound of climate change.") "Birds tell us that the world is changing—that the climate is changing," Gonia says of the same birds that mercilessly poop on your car's windshield. "They sing it over us and around us in their songs and in the songs they no longer sing."
According to the National Audubon Society's online profile of Gonia, the papier-mâché-looking eyesore seen in the video is a sustainability-focused dress assembled to look like the western meadowlark, an icterid bird that nests on the ground in open grasslands across western and central North America. Sourced from Nebraska raw materials, Gonia's gaudy attire was made from black walnuts and marigolds used to dye silk black and yellow.
The footage, filmed at Audubon's Spring Creek Prairie Center outside of Lincoln, Nebraska, does not mark a new activist direction for the environmental organization. The National Audubon Society has celebrated Pride Month since 2018 with LGBTQ-themed "Let's Go Birding Together" bird walks, "a queer-inclusive birding program," as well as a "bird drag tutorial," a niche form of drag makeup that are avian-influenced looks.
This June, we’re excited to celebrate LGBTQ+ #Pride with our many in-person events planned across the U.S. Let’s Go Birding Together walks are meant for anyone who wants to enjoy an outdoor experience that’s inclusive, birdy fun. https://t.co/58J1dVbr4A
— Audubon Society (@audubonsociety) June 1, 2022
If the proud-as-a-peacock Gonia seems like a character to you, the drag artist persona with "they/she/he" pronouns is, in fact, an alter ego of Wyn Wiley, a photographer who has worked in the past for Martha Stewart Magazine, Adidas, rapper Macklemore, and Pepsi. (Wiley, as himself, has also delivered a TEDxYouth talk in 2018 on self-discovery.) Gonia was born from Wiley's imagination to call attention to "climate change crises facing North America's wild lands" and to "make the outdoors as gay as possible." On Gonia's environmental advocacy agenda is to travel to Alaska in full drag to perform "a spoken word funeral for a melting glacier."
Gonia, whose verified Instagram account is followed by Squad member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has even brought environmental activism to TikTok, gaining over 132,000 followers there. "Birds are drag queens," Gonia captioned a TikTok video Tuesday providing a behind-the-scenes look at the elaborate Audubon photoshoot on the grassland prairies. On the video-sharing platform, Gonia has donned a theatrical ensemble made from literal trash, twerked on a natural ice skating rink, and rock climbed in high heels. According to an interview with Vogue, Gonia's favorite video shows the TikTok creator dressed as Lady Liberty launching a voodoo doll of former President Donald Trump out of a slingshot made with a surgical mask.
Like birds of a feather that flock together, other corporate names have latched on to Gonia's internet stardom.
This year, the North Face teamed up with Gonia to advertise its multi-city "Summer of Pride" series where the duo will be stopping in Portland, Oregon; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and San Francisco, California. Gonia will host outdoor activities designed to build and support local LGBTQ+ engagement. For the launch of the campaign, Gonia is seen donning a tent for an outfit alongside a matching silver walking stick. "We're traveling all the gay across America," Gonia says in the outdoor clothing brand's promotional ad.
Last November, the Smithsonian invited Gonia, appearing in the festival lineup with Bill Nye the Science Guy, to speak at the grand opening of its FUTURES Remixed exhibit on the "Unexpected Conversations" panel.
In mid-April, Gonia was brought to the University of Southern California's campus as the Earth Month speaker for the Queer and Ally Student Assembly (QuASA) and the Environmental Student Assembly student groups.
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