That shows us that we’re a progressive state, so with all of that, drag has evolved more into becoming mainstream.” Now we have the first gay governor in the country, the first person ever elected to state office that identifies as gay. “I think with people transplanting here, and the population growing, and the times changing, we’ve moved to a much more progressive state. “Not so long ago, we were a red state,” she continues. There were a few lesbian clubs that were around, but other than that, it was pretty much a gay man’s community,” recalls James, who got her start in drag when she was fifteen, back in the late ’80s. The clubs were very much gay clubs that pretty much only gay men went to. “When I started, I wouldn’t even call it the LGBTQIA community back then I would just call it the gay community, and it was very underground. Drag queen Jazmine James remembers Colorado’s queer community in its infancy, when it was little more than a few covert clubs for gay men.
