User:Rsummers9/Pattie Gonia

Wyn "Pattie" Wiley (born on July 21, 1992), known professionally as Pattie Gonia, is an environmentalist and drag queen as well as a professional photographer and activist for the LGBTQIA+ community. They describe themselves as a "professional homosexual, queer environmentalist, and drag queen building community for queer people, allies and our planet."

Education and Early Life
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Gonia describes their upbringing as surrounded by cornfields and little else. Throughout their childhood, they participated in various outdoor programs, which strengthened their appreciation for the environment and led them to an interest in backpacking in mountainous states like Colorado. Gonia took up an interest in photography at the age of 14 when they practiced with their father’s camera and they continued with it into adulthood. Gonia graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a degree in advertising and public relations in 2014.

Career
While Gonia states that they always had an interest in the environment, there activist efforts did not begin until they after they began exploring their own sexuality. After coming out as gay, they stated in an interview that they received a lot of backlash from their conservative hometown. They eventually went on a backpacking trip where they documented themselves hiking up a mountain in high heeled boots. They then posted the videos and photos that subsequently went viral, amassing millions of views. From there they continued to explore the connection between drag and environmentalism, eventually creating the drag persona Pattie Gonia.

Gonia has built their activism and community through their art form of drag and outdoor/environmental community organizing that focus on various environmental issues. They know use their platform to further advocate for both the LGBTQIA+ community as well as climate justice efforts. As a content creator- Pattie has amassed over 30 million views on their drag, environmental and outdoor content across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube content.

In 2019, Gonia partnered with REI to make a documentary called "Dear Mother Nature" which includes a performance of a spoken word poem by Gonia entitled "Everything to Lose".

In 2021, Pattie Gonia and Red Fong created the Queer Outdoor and Environmental Job Board which has been used to help queer applicants find employment in environmental fields.

In 2022, Gonia worked on a variety of different environmental projects. Launched in January, Gonia along with two other activists Teresa Baker and José González, founded the nonprofit organization The Outdoorist Oath. The organization is built on three central pillars: planet, inclusion, and adventure. The goal of the group is to increase intersectionality within the outdoors community. To celebrate Pride Month, Pattie Gonia partnered with the non-profit organization Audubon to create a film project entitled Birds Tell Us: The Song of the Meadowlark that focused on the threat that climate change poses to birds. Also in June, Pattie Gonia worked with The North Face to create the 'Summer of Pride' series that focused on bringing more people of the LGBTQIA+ community into the outdoors.

Personal life
Pattie Gonia uses she/they pronouns when in drag and while out of drag Wyn Wiley uses he/they pronouns.