Art has definitely saved my life.

If there were no art, if I hadn't been exposed to all the art forms that have enriched my life -- I hate to say it.

I don't want to be macabre, but, like, I don't know that I'd be here.

♪♪ Hi.

I'm Peppermint.

And this is how art changed me.

The first time that I did drag, my version of drag, would be when I sort of tricked my grandmother into helping me get into drag.

Essentially, there was these characters in a superhero movie.

And there was a female one, but they all had similar outfits.

But the female Martian was, like, more embellished and, you know, more fancy and all that.

She had, like, slits in her outfit so you could see her skin and you could see her legs.

Very provocative.

To somebody who hadn't seen the movie, my grandmother, they all were the same.

And she made her outfit for me.

And so I was, like, running around and, like [Imitating lasers firing] like, just, like, living -- I was just -- I felt so empowered and felt so free.

Then once that happened, I was like, I'm never really dressing up as, like, "a male character" again.

[ Laughs ] At the bare minimum, it gave me permission to emulate or imitate how those ladies were acting in the movie and in the TV show.

But at the most, it gave me permission to explore and then tap into and then lock onto permanently the mannerisms and the behaviors and personas that I would never leave.

You know, I think back to some artists that were really inspirational and iconic, of course, but also really gave me permission to feel okay with the feelings that I was having around my queerness and around my own identity.

Artists like Janet Jackson and Prince were either writing or behaving in a way that let me know that it was okay just to be who I am.

And I wasn't really getting that message from anyone else or any other type of media, really.

There weren't a lot of other queer icons that I was able to connect with, certainly were not a lot of other trans icons that I was able to even see or discover.

Like, when I was applying to go to college, I was not concerned with what was inside the brochure.

I was legit looking at the outside of the brochure and looking for people like me, and then eventually got accepted in New York at American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

I started working in drag, basically going in drag to the Tunnel nightclub, and then eventually I got hired to work there for $50 a week.

In New York City, even in the '90s, that wasn't enough money.

As I was bolstering my drag persona to other people, my trans identity was growing sort of under the cover.

You know, I mean, I'd always been involved in theater and always loved theater, but it always felt so sterile and really -- honestly, really straight and white.

And the first time I, like... was, like, dumbfounded, stupefied, entranced, transfixed by a piece was "Rent" on Broadway, the Broadway show "Rent."

And the role of Angel, the character of Angel, was the first time I'd ever seen anybody who resonated with me in that way and was being loved and adored and not victimized, at least not, like, physically violated in any way, and someone that other characters looked up to and I guess I would say probably, like, the heart of the show.

I'm getting goosebumps now.

It was the first time I'd ever seen something like that, because up until the time, you know, we had things like Jerry Springer, which a trans person, a trans woman would go onto the show and, like, profess her love for some guy, or the guy would propose to marry this beautiful lady that he'd been dating, discover that she's trans, and then he would hit her with a chair, and the audience would cheer.

And that was, like, what we -- That's our offering of how to treat trans people who are just saying who they are or expressing love, someone who you loved up until this point.

And so here "Rent" was showing me a different possibility.

And so it's probably not a surprise that I changed my drag name temporarily to Angel.

[ Laughs ] I grew up in the '90s -- born in the '70s, grew up in the '80s, became an adult in the '90s, and during this time, the AIDS epidemic was in full effect.

And so I grew up thinking and knowing that, like, artists, in my opinion, had, if not a responsibility, then definitely a power in advocacy.

Because of the positioning between the AIDS epidemic and the fight for marriage equality, and also coming from a long line of trans women and drag entertainers who were at Stonewall, drag to me meant activism, and we were the -- oftentimes the spokespeople, the mouthpiece for the community and the people who would, like, rally the community and sometimes wake up the community, you know?

And so I learned from some of the best, and then I just carried the torch.

♪♪ ♪♪