A word of advice - don't invite your parents to the after-party at 4 A. M.
— Courtney Act
The first time I ever dressed in drag was at a costume party during my childhood. I went as Wonder Woman and my mom even took me to get the costume.
A good night's sleep is a super important part of feeling good.
I think that 'Drag Race' would certainly let a straight guy compete in drag.
After Pride, Christmas is a drag queen's next best holiday. It's pretty gay, full of tinsel and glitter and finery and campness.
I'm no Joan of Arc, but it's pretty revolutionary having a gender illusionist selling the illusion of beauty to females.
I like being a boy, but I also really like being a girl.
I've learnt I don't have to be a man and I don't have to be a woman, I can just be me.
I think it's best if I remain as dysfunctional as I can.
Yeah, back in 2003, I went to 'Australian Idol' the first day as a boy, and I got knocked out. So I went back the next day in drag and made it into the Top 12 and got a record deal and toured around Australia.
While dressing up as Courtney is a performance, there is a part of me that is expressing my gender in feminine and masculine ways.
Brexit happened. Donald Trump is president. If Ann Widdecombe won CBB Year of the Woman, it would be the third sign of the Apocalypse.
People who cling rigidly to gender binaries are more than welcome to. But for a lot of young people, we're seeing that our gender roles don't have to be dictated by a set of rules made by society. We can do whatever feels natural to us.
We have such a rigid idea of what heterosexuality is and that's problematic. We have such a rigid idea of what gay is and that's also problematic.
Different people are attracted to me depending on how I look. I have a very broad spectrum of attraction.
Often with bigotry it's passive not active.
For my teen years and all of my twenties it felt like I was trying to live up to this expectation of being a man and what that meant - not just what clothes I wore, but how I acted.
I live in a bubble, but there have been times when my bubble has been burst.
Pride is a time to celebrate what makes us unique and the more we let young people know that those things that make us different are actually our greatest strengths, the more comfortable we are in our own skin and the more peacefully we'll sleep at night.
I'm definitely more attracted to men and masculinity - not just cis men but trans guys, too.
I think it's so important to think about the basic human rights of others and to use our collective voices, minds and bodies to lift those people up and bring about change.
When it all boils down, being Courtney has forced me to be different to the status quo, which means I have gotten to decide on every choice along the way.
Courtney wants to make the statement that superficial beauty is manufactured and that any woman, or in this case, any man can be beautiful with the right tools.
The most vocal fans online are girls, which is interesting. I didn't expect that.
Caitlyn Jenner, for all of her flaws, did start a conversation around the world about gender.
I loved being on 'Drag Race' but I say leave well enough alone.
I love New York audiences, because they're used to going to shows, and you really notice it. They laugh and applaud and do all the things that you want an audience to do.
Russia is a very different place than what we in the West are familiar with. We cannot apply our own values and judgments to the country. We need to have greater compassion and understanding and recognize that our similarities are greater than our differences.
I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in a heaven or afterlife. I believe that once I die, that's it.
Obviously drag has different intentions and my drag has always been about gender illusion.
It's important to acknowledge bisexual, pansexual.
I know that the U.K. loves a villain.
I know what it's like to be in unrequited love.
I sort of throw away the definitions of gender - that boys are 'supposed' to wear blue and girls are 'supposed' to wear pink - and those gender roles and gender presentations. I do it on my own terms rather than based on what other people say I should do.
Courtney isn't just a costume, it's a way I express my femininity.
I know when there's lots of stuff racing around in my head it can be hard to sleep and stay asleep. And one of the biggest things that used to keep me awake at night was worrying about my gender and sexuality.
Being trans means different things to different people. Some people don't take hormones, some people don't have surgery, some people are just happy living in the clothes of their chosen gender.
'Fight For Love' is a dancefloor banger all about coming together and fighting for the things we believe in.
Gender roles are absurd when you actually look at them. The fact that anybody could ever say or think that dressing in women's clothes is wrong, or odd. Women dressing in women's clothes and men dressing in men's clothes is the actually the thing that is really odd.
There is so much frustration in the heterosexual male community manifesting in different ways, whether it be aggression or sexism or racism. I'm not saying all heterosexual men are that way, but you do see a lot of it.
The Spice Girls were the life preserver to my high school years.
Changing genders is not a quick process... it takes about two hours to put on all the make-up and the lashes, and the hair, and the corsets, and the seven kinds of adhesives that work in tandem on my body to keep things up and keep things down.
I would have hated for my 'Drag Race' moment to have come down to lip syncing a Whitney Houston song.
I don't get too dressy as a boy that often.
Russia isn't only oppressive toward gay people, it is hard on everyone, particularly women.
As I get older, I'm more comfortable with the idea of dying.
There's something problematic with this idea that straight men can be 'turned', and the binary of gay and straight and the lack of knowledge of the Kinsey scale.
The U.K.'s got the most advanced relationship with masculinity, femininity and sexuality.
I just wanted to show young people you can be you and wear what you want.
I was always made to feel that men were desirable because of their masculinity, and for a boy, being feminine was not something you should be proud of. But, I came to realise it's OK for boys to be feminine, for girls to be masculine and we should all express ourselves however we want.
