“Miami is filled with such amazing queens and being a baby queen is so intimidating,” Morphine told Queerty. Photo by Karli Evans/All Seeing Media for Queerty.
Morphine Love getting ready before a show at R House Wynwood in Miami. You get a little prosecco or tequila in her and she’s adopting kids left and right,” joked Morphine Love Dion, 25, who has been doing drag for five years. She is also now housemother to over 20 children.
MIAMI GAY BAR REGISTRATION
She’s an entrepreneur who created Dream Queens, an entertainment company that develops individualized drag experiences for all types of events and she’s a community activist who works closely with SAVE (a South Florida organization protecting LGBTQ+ people against discrimination ), hosting fundraisers for LGBTQ-supportive politicians and campaigning to increase voter registration within the queer community. Vegas Dion has since retired and Athena, now 34, works year-round as a drag performer in Miami, with summer residences in Mykonos. And I think that’s what attracted me to it.” I feel like you’re actually getting who the person really is when they’re in drag. “I feel like there’s just so much liberation involved with it. I still can’t put into words the attraction I have for it - to see people in drag,” she said. I met Vegas and just fell in love with drag. “I went to my first gay club when I was 20. The “infamous” House of Dion began as a classic love story: boy meets boy, boy puts boy in wig, they kai kai, and form a family for all eternity.įor Athena, who identifies as non-binary and is comfortable with either he or she pronouns out of drag, it was love at first sight for both drag and Vegas Dion, the first of the Dion dynasty. The queens of R House Wynwood with co-owners Rocco Carulli, left, and Owen Bale.
MIAMI GAY BAR PROFESSIONAL
I never saw that happening … we just became this little troupe of queens.”Īnd the troupe is triumphing - creating a supportive chosen family, proselytizing queer joy to audiences that extend beyond the LGBTQ community, and succeeding as professional drag performers outside of the Drag Race universe. “And now it’s grown into this kind of infamous name in Miami. We just so happen to be really fierce entertainers as well, but there’s also a real bond there,” Athena told Queerty. We’re all actually friends, and we spend a lot of time together and we call each other. I don’t think you should really go out looking to create a drag family. “I never really thought I would be a drag mother or have this legacy of kids. In the process, she’s also creating a family of queens determined to put Miami drag on the national radar. The Miami drag diva hosts and produces shows at R House Wynwood and has, in collaboration with owners Rocco Carulli and Owen Bale, turned the restaurant into a destination for anyone who loves a high-energy drag extravaganza. Now, every weekend, artists with a very different type of brush are painting for the gods - or in this case, the “Greek Goddess,” Athena Dion. The neighborhood of Wynwood has gained worldwide acclaim for its street art and vibrant murals.