Queer Me Out 

Event Contact:W Seattle Marketing Teamw﻿seattle.marketing@whotels.com

W Seattle

QUEER ME OUT Up-close with the movers, shakers & boundary breakers who are pushing the LGBTQ+ movement forward. Join us at W Seattle for a Queer Me Out event, followed by Q&A for our amazing panelists, and drinks and a DJ in the Living Room. This is an Official PrideFest event and complimentary to the public (but register for a guaranteed seat)! LET’S TALK 50 Years from Stonewall in Seattle Thursday, June 6th 5:30PM-7PM Great Room - 2nd Floor W Seattle 1112 4th Ave Seattle, WA 98101 READ ME ***This is a complimentary public event but please buy a ticket so we can have an accurate head count of seats. Registered ticket owners will be let in first and if there is additional room, anyone without a ticket will be let in. RUN OF SHOW 5PM-5:45PM - Doors Open + Cocktail Hour 5:45PM-6:30PM - Panel Discussion 6:30-6:45PM - Q&A 6:45PM - Network, Cocktails and DJ in the Living Room LED BY: EGAN ORION Egan Orion is the founder of Seattle PrideFest and a longtime fixture in the Capitol Hill LGBTQ community. He has been producing PrideFest at Seattle Center for 12 years now and PrideFest Capitol Hill for 5 years. He also is director of the Broadway Business Improvement Area and Executive Director of the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce. He’s also running for Seattle City Council District 3. In his free time, he writes novels, climbs mountains, and goes on long walks with his yellow lab, Oke. PANELIST: CANDIS CAYNE Candis Cayne is an American actress and performance artist. Known in the NYC nightclub scene since the 1990s, Cayne came to national attention in 2007 for portraying transgender mistress Carmelita on ABC’s prime time drama Dirty Sexy Money. The role makes Cayne the first transgender actress to play a recurring transgender character in prime-time television. Cayne moved to New York in the early 1990s, making a name for herself as a choreographer and drag performer. In 1995 Cayne appeared in the comedy-drama film Stonewall, and the Universal Studios comedy feature film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. In the next 10 years Cayne made performances on Nip/Tuck, RuPaul’s Drag U, and Necessary Roughness. In 2015, Cayne started making appearances in seasons 1 and 2 of Caitlyn Jenner’s reality show I Am Cait. Since 2017 to the present day Cayne has been playing the role of The Fairy Queen in the Syfy series, The Magicians. ARSON NICKI Arson Nicki is Seattle’s preeminent aggressively transgressive drag artist. They produce, host, and perform at Rapture at the Timbre Room, as well as at Fresh at 18th & Union: An Arts Space. Arson has showcased their work at the Seattle Art Museum, The Factory, Mokedo, project205 (Portland, OR), and performed in clubs and bars up and down the West Coast. Their work focuses on pushing drag’s creative boundaries, presenting queer performances in unconventional contexts and spaces, and expanding underserved populations’ access to drag. SARAH TOCE Sarah Toce is an award-winning journalist. Sarah was honored with the 2017 Community Builder Award by Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. In 2017, she was recognized as one of the most powerful journalists by Curve magazine. She was also the recipient of the distinguished 2016 LGBT Leadership Award from the Washington Diversity Council. MONSERATT PADILLA Monserrat Padilla is the coordinator of the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, a powerful statewide coalition of over 150 organizations that are building the defense line to protect our immigrant and refugee community. She was a co-founder of the Washington Dream Coalition and has led national and statewide campaigns. Monserrat has been organizing LGBTQ, immigrant and communities of color on the ground for over 10 years to build a collective movement of power. TONY RADOVICH Tony Radovich is a queer activist, elder, Radical Faerie and mentor who has been living with HIV for over 30 years. As a community organizer he has helped to shape the communities we live in, always carrying forward the power and legacy of direct action and leadership. He has been a champion of peer-based recovery support services for over a decade; always meeting people where they are at with dignity and respect. These days he helps to organize low- and no-income Washingtonians with VOCAL-WA (Voices of Community Activists and Leaders). VOCAL-WA is a community-based organization made up of former and active drug users, homeless, and those affected by HIV/AIDS or Hep C, or impacted by the failed war on drugs and mass incarceration. "As older activists, our role now is to walk alongside young leaders, not to disappear and leave them to it." Jane Shepherd PAUL BLAKES (KALUHA ICE) Born and raised in Seattle, it took Paul Blakes coming out twice to fully find his footing in the early 1990s. Blakes became friends with a group of gay men who taught him about drag, gay life, cruising, the family you choose, bad decisions, AIDS, and love which forever changed him. As with every drag queen, Paul’s queen career began at Neighbours on Halloween night October 1990 as Kahlua Ice. With the help of some amazing drag queens to help show him the way, Kahlua became the co-host to Neighbours lip sync nights and eventually hosted for over 10 years. During that time, our community was constantly in a fight against HIV, AIDS, Homophobia, fights for gay marriage and equal rights, along with so many other threats. Paul says that “what would appear to be the worst of times were also the best of times, because we were in the fight for our lives together.” Throughout his career as Kahlua Ice, Paul became Miss Gay Seattle 28, along with a member of the Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle and the Olympic and Rainier Empire where he was able to raise money and awareness for homeless gay youth, aids research, gay marriage/equality and any of the multiple issues that where plaguing the community in the PNW but all around the country. Kahlua Ice was also the 1st runner up to Lafamme Magnifique International, as well as Miss Gay Vancouver 121/2, Half Empress of Bellingham, La Femme Magnifique of Seattle and the creator of the Mr., Miss and Ms. NEIGHBOURS pageant. After a while, Paul decided to move away from Kahlua, and did a rotation with the national tour of Sound of Music, as Supervisor of hair and makeup until he was diagnosed with end stage renal failure. After many humbling experiences and countless surgeries later, Paul is grateful for what he has been through because he wouldn’t be where his is today as a licensed hairdresser working at a high-end salon and spa in Seattle.

Main Stage

Coco Montrese, Queen Andrew Scott, and Anita Spritzer

Werk the W Drag Brunch

Head in the Clouds Trivia

The Ambrosia Sessions

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Queer Me Out

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Queer Me Out

More events from W Seattle

Discover more events from W Seattle, from Community to other experiences you might love.

Main Stage

Coco Montrese, Queen Andrew Scott, and Anita Spritzer

Werk the W Drag Brunch

Head in the Clouds Trivia

The Ambrosia Sessions

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