A Rebirth

This post was originally published on St. Louis American

By Danielle Brown

Walking to the beat of their own drums with no regret, despite society’s traditional views on race, gender, and sexuality, has centered Maxi Glamour’s universe since childhood.

Walking to the beat of their own drums with no regret, despite society’s traditional views on race, gender, and sexuality, has centered Maxi Glamour’s universe since childhood.

Glamour, a non-binary community activist, national drag star, and artist born Maxwell, adopted their confident alias fashioned with uncontemporary, progressive race, gender, and social ideologies at a young age.

They championed support for queer rights after coming out at 11, joining their school’s gay-straight alliance club.

“Coming out was different for every person I interacted with,” Glamour said.“I didn’t come out to my mom. She was like, ‘there’s this cute girl down the street, and her car needs to be fixed. Maybe you should go help her, and I said ‘help with what? Her eyebrows?’”

Raised in a household consisting of a white Jewish mother and Black father, all while moving from district to district, they learned early they weren’t interested in following their peers.

“I was in the goth scene and hung around emo, skater kids, misfits, degenerates,” they said. “Those people were subversive and didn’t care about being gay, queer, or weird. They had their norm and were comfortable with it, making me surround myself with people who deliberately accepted me for who I am and validated me.”

At 14, they started going by their fictitious name and donning women’s apparel to school.

“I came up with my name because I wanted something gayer, something for Myspace, something that was punk rock,” Glamour said.

“I idolized how Johnny Rotten and Marilyn Manson had cool names that stuck, so I chose to make up a weird name and morph into a different person.”

They came out as trans at 19 and drastically transformed their wardrobe into outfits that pushed the envelope. It was also during their teen years when they joined the drag profession.

“I was a club personality prior, and I’d appear at random punk shows around the Midwest in St. Louis, Chicago, Kansas City, and Joplin,” they said.

“I went to a gay club as a teen and was asked if I wanted to be a go-go dancer I said sure, and then I was also asked if I wanted to compete in a drag competition. I agreed and lost. That was 13 years ago.”

Their skills and experience with drag across the United States motivated them to apply for a spot on “The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula,” which they describe as horror drag. Glamour was portrayed being chopped in half during the show and even jumped from a plane in drag.

“It’s an eye-opening experience to have performed worldwide,” Glamour said. “I deal with realness in St. Louis. Show business is different. I’ve had to deal with people who try to use me to get above or attach themselves to my name for clout.”

Maxi Glamour is no longer just a stage name or persona for them; it has since become their full government name. They can now be referred to as Maximus Amadeus Glamour or Maxi Glamour for short.

Their next step is to change their birth certificate to get a new passport with an X gender marker.

“I’ve grown into who I see myself as rather than who I was born as,” they said. “I embrace people being super autonomous with their identities.”

Glamour is honest about how at one point in their life they did conform based on what people thought they should be but they realized others’ opinions don’t matter.

“I think as you mature, you experiment with so many things about what makes you happy, how to dress and present yourself, “ they said.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’ve matured. I’m comfortable with my shortcomings because my strengths are built upon my shortcomings without trying to overcompensate them or deal with them.”

The advice they give to Black youth fearful of coming out as nonbinary, queer, or trans to their family is to not be afraid.

“I’ve always had the mentality of saying, ‘I am who I am, and I’m proud of who I am,” Glamour said. “If you can’t appreciate me in all my glory then you don’t deserve me in all my glory.”

Learn more about Glamour by visiting their website, https://maxiglamour.com.