A 7-year-old fought for drag queens. When she got sick, they helped her sing again

Republicans have spent years now attacking drag queens , labeling them as predators, and trying to put an end to drag queen story hours , but for one 7-year-old girl, it’s drag queens who stepped in and lifted her spirits while she was going through a life-threatening medical crisis. Drag queens Miss Bouvèé (Eric Swanson) and Dixie Longate (Kris Andersson) came to Anwyn Watts’s hospital room earlier this month for a sing-along and celebration that meant everything to a little girl who has had four major surgeries since she was first rushed to the emergency room last December. “Anwyn still tells everyone she had her very own drag show in her hospital room,” her mother Stephanie Watts said. When Anwyn woke up in the middle of the night feeling sick, Stephanie Watts didn’t think much of it until her daughter’s personality seemed to shift and one side of her body went limp. After being taken to the hospital in an ambulance, doctors found a large golf-ball-sized mass in Anwyn’s brain that was causing her to have strokes. She had to have surgery to remove the mass and another to relieve pressure in her brain. Ultimately, she was diagnosed with an arteriovenous malformation — a tangle of blood vessels Anwyn was born with, though her family was unaware because she had never had prior symptoms — and placed in a medically induced coma with a ventilator to breathe for her. “It wasn’t just her brain, she had tubes coming out of every part of her body,” Stephanie Watts said. “There were lines in both of her arms, both legs, and ankles. No one wants to see their loved one sick, and then to see your child hooked up to machines that are keeping her alive. It was unbelievable.” When Anwyn finally woke up, she couldn’t walk or speak, but was finally able to sing when Miss Dixie and Miss Bouvèé visited her, after months of treatments and therapy. “We had a sing-a-long, and we had a lot of fun,” Stephanie Watts said. “Anwyn said we were just jamming out, she had a lot of fun with them. She keeps talking about them.” Anwyn has loved drag queens since she attended her first Naples Pridefest with her family when she was just 3 years old. But she’s not just a fan, she’s already a fierce ally at her young age. Stephanie Watts describes their family as “very prideful” and explained that her son, 28, is part of the LGBTQ+ community, and Anywyn takes her role as a supporter of the queer community very seriously. “My daughter understands that love is love and it doesn’t matter who you love,” she said. When Naples, Florida, where the family is from, tried enforcing discriminatory restrictions on drag performances at the city’s Pride celebration because the city council didn’t want drag queens to “be visible to children because they believe it’s harmful to our youth,” Stephanie Watts said, Anwyn participated in protests and rallies, and even went to the courthouse to voice her opinion. “When she’s asked how do you feel about drag queens, her answer is ‘I like to dress up as a princess, but they like to dress up as queens,’” she said. “She will literally shrug her shoulders, like ‘What’s the difference?’ At the end of the day, you wash your makeup off, and you are who you are.” Stephanie Watts said that her daughter “wants to be free to be me” when she grows up and hates that the drag queens she looks up to are under attack. “She’s angry, this kid has a voice when it comes to this administration,” she said. “If she could vote, let me tell you! She’s angry about a lot of what is happening in the world right now.” Anwyn’s love of drag queens and willingness to protest to support them hasn’t gone unnoticed. Not only did Miss Dixie and Miss Bouvèé visit her at her bedside, but she was crowned the first “Naples Princess of Pride,” a title that will be bestowed upon her in person at PrideFest in April. “She’s so excited,” Stephanie Watts said. "We’re trying to find the perfect dress for her right now. She’s very proud, so she tells everybody that she actually is a princess now because Naples Pride says so.” Laura Benanti, a friend of Anwyn’s music therapist, also made an Instagram video asking other drag queens to make video clips with encouraging messages for Anwyn, and Drag Race icon Nina West was one of the first queens to say she would help out. After three long months, Anwyn is finally home from the hospital, but she uses a wheelchair now and will need more surgeries and radiation treatments. Her family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay for her medical bills, medical equipment, travel expenses to get to appointments and future surgeries, and to provide other financial support since her parents had to take the last three months off work. “We’re so thankful for this,” Stephanie Watts said. “Things just keep adding up. Nothing is getting cheaper these days.”

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