Drag with a Side of Activism

Dr. Zackarina Jenny-hoe

by Denny Patterson

Research consistently shows that people who identify as LGBTQ are more than likely to experience mental health challenges than their straight peers. Fortunately, we have people like Denver drag queen and activist Dr. Zackarina Jenny-hoe, who is here to help us better understand language and inclusiveness, create learning spaces, and explore the impact of mental health challenges in the queer community.

She may not be a real doctor (yet!), but mental and public health is a subject she is very passionate about, and what better to raise awareness than through the art of drag?

Jenny-hoe took some time to answer some questions for OFM.

Can you begin by telling us who Zackarina Jenny-hoe is and what she’s all about?

Zackarina Jenny-hoe, or Dr. Zackarina Jenny-hoe—She has no medical degree but believes very strongly about it—is my drag persona that I created about a year ago back in North Carolina. I had always loved drag. As a little gay kid sitting at home watching RuPaul’s Drag Race, I was still in the closet, but I would watch these amazing queens and performers and be like, “Wow, I love what they’re doing.” The theatre kid in me also loved it.

Flash forward, I started to learn a lot more about queer history and my identity, and finding out that drag has always been this political statement, and it’s always been associated with social justice and activism. I thought that seemed like a great bridge with who I am outside of drag, wanting to live a life of social justice and activism, and then the fun, theatrical side of me.

One of the first drag queens I ever found on social media was Pattie Gonia, and I thought she was so cool because she combines drag with environmental activism. That was the type of thing I wanted to do. My background is in public health, and I’m very passionate about it. I was like, why can't I be a drag queen that combines public health activism with the campiness of drag?

Do you perform anywhere specific in Denver, or are you all over the place right now?

I'm all over the place right now. I'm not a resident queen anywhere, but I produce a couple different shows at some breweries; I'm producing a new comedy show, and I do a lot of charity philanthropy, public health, and social justice events

Is drag your full-time job?

No. Right now, my full-time job is working as a program manager at Mile High Behavioral Healthcare, and within that agency, I work in a program called Bee The Vibe, which provides harm reduction resources. Safer sex and safer drug use is kind of our bread and butter, and then we focus that towards our queer and trans communities. It’s great. I basically say that my day job is sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, but instead of rock ‘n’ roll, it's more like Lady Gaga and a lot of Top 40 pop.

How did your passion for public and mental health come about?

When I was in college, I used to have a background in fitness and wellness. I worked as a personal trainer, a wellness coach, a part-time nutritionist, and when I would meet with clients, many would tell me they didn’t have access to healthy foods. It was frustrating that I couldn’t help them more. I had really cool mentors, and they’d be like, “Yeah, isn’t the fucked up? Doesn’t it piss you off that people don’t have access to that?” Then they would sneak in little lessons around public health and be like, “Have you ever heard of social determinants of health?”

I started to weed in a little bit of that activism and more progressive ideas around public health, but I needed to learn more about what public health was. Like, how can I make change and help people through ways to make sure that people have access to resources, education, and information so they can make those decisions for themselves and live a happy, healthy life? My mentors were hellraisers, and they taught me how to become a hellraiser. That was kind of what launched my love of public health.

You like to focus on the legislative side of public health and cultural change. What are some major issues you are most active and vocal about?

One of the big things (is HIV awareness), and luckily, at least here in Colorado, there’s a lot of great work around HIV awareness, care, and treatment. I’m very vocal about that and getting people access to free resources like PrEP, as well as access to free and easy treatment for reducing their viral load to an undetectable level. Colorado does a fantastic job at providing all those resources. I remember when I was first learning about sexual health as a queer person, I went to the doctor and immediately asked about PrEP.

Another big passion of mine is bringing more queer resources and queer sexual health resources to rural areas. For both my day job and drag, I work a lot in Summit County, which is where Breckenridge, Silverthorne, and a lot of ski mountain towns are. There’s a large young queer population, but when you ask people where they can get STI tested, there's very little to no places. So, a lot of my stuff is helping with those resources, as well as creating better infrastructure to support the educational side.

Mental health has always been a big topic, but why do you think it's an even bigger topic within the LGBTQ community?

I always come from a place of data, and when we look at the data, there are large glaring health disparities between the queer community and our cis-hetero counterparts. That’s because of stigma, and the fact that a lot of cultural and social situations and systems are set up in our nation where queer people are bound to have more consequences when it comes to mental health.

I can’t think off the top of my head the exact numbers, but there are so many stats out there showing that queer people are more likely to consider or die by suicide. Queer people are more likely to live in isolation. Queer youths are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. Homelessness for queer youth is higher.

So many things we see on that data level exist, and now, especially post-COVID, there’s a lot more conversations around mental health. We need more intentional programming, education, and resources around mental health for queer communities. The data isn't improving as much as we need it to be, so there's this extra emphasis of, like, we need to do better. We need to do more.

How do you keep your own mental health and well-being in check?

Oh gosh, I don’t (laughs). No, one of the big reasons why I moved out to Denver was actually because my two old- er sisters live here. Once I finished in North Carolina with my graduate degree, I was looking for a place to go, and being close to family is something that’s very important to me. I knew having that support system was going to be crucial. So, for me, it’s both chosen and biological family, and also making sure that I’m taking time for myself and having that balance, which can be very hard, especially when drag is, quote unquote, a hobby for me.

I do drag a lot, so it sometimes becomes a second job. Sometimes, I’ll reserve at least one weekend a month where I'm not doing any drag shows, or I’ll ensure that I'm not trying to triple book myself. I will take a step back and reevaluate my schedule and calendar, and I'm not afraid to sometimes pull out of shows. Even if it's a show I really wanted to do, if I'm stressed and I know I’m not going to be able to give my 100 percent, it makes more sense to give this booking to somebody else than to take it, hurt the show, and hurt myself. Being able to say no can be beneficial.

What are some future goals you hope to accomplish with your drag career and platform?

Well, because I love to put myself in debt, I do want to go back to school. I want to get my doctorate in public health, also known as a DrPH. It’s kind of a mixed blend of research and leadership. You learn all these foundational concepts of public health and do a dissertation, but there's this emphasis of pracademia, where you apply your research into something that benefits the communities you’re serving.

The dream would be to have my academic career based around drag, and I gave a presentation the other month to a couple public health organizations, where I'm very interested in this idea of a public health model built around drag. Drag queens, kings, and artists are respected people within the queer community, and it kind of connects back to that idea that drag is a political statement. So, my dream would be using my drag platform, as well as blending it with academia, and basically working at an institution and doing drag-based health models. I think that would be the neatest thing on earth.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?

I just plan on continuing to provide education, outreach, and make public health fun. I want to drag it up in the best way possible and make it this call to action. If anyone wants to work with me, I’m always willing and interested in working with others to achieve different missions, especially nonprofits. And I’m available all 12 months of the year, not just Pride because, fun fact, queer people exist 24/7.

So, I’m looking forward to more projects like that, and I plan on doing more shows. I usually try to blend some type of activism with my shows, whether it's having conversations around these topics or partially making them fundraisers. If people want to support and watch drag, it's kind of a win-win. You feel good, and you leave happy. So, that's kind of what I've got on the roster for the rest of the year!

Stay up-to-date and connect with Jenny-hoe by following her on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok @dr.zackarina.