The Business of Drag: Julie Yard Says to Not Wait for Permission

The Business of Drag is a Queerency interview series exploring the entrepreneurs, innovators, and artists of the drag economy.

Julie Yard is a drag performer who was at the center of a Drag Story Hour controversy a few years ago. Bit there’s much more to this Julliard-trained musician and queen. 

We chatted with her about her experience as a queer teenager, her first time in drag, and why people should pay attention to drag even if it’s not happening in a major city like New York or Los Angeles. 

How did you get started doing drag? What made you want to pursue the art form as a profession?

I was about 14 when I came out and had a best friend whose mother was a lesbian. Growing up in Michigan, nobody had role models like that. My best friend and her mom took me under their wing and that’s when I started going to events like Pride and seeing drag and other elements of queer culture. I went to the Eastern School of Music for my undergrad from 2009 to 2013, which was the era of Pandora Boxx, Miss Kasha Davis, Darien Lake and some of the earlier RuPaul’s Drag Race queens. I kind of had them as role models. I went on to the Julliard School in New York City, which is where my drag name comes from.

When Bianca Del Rio won season six of RuPaul’s Drag Race and I remember I saw so much of myself in her. Somewhat mean but very quick-witted 20-something queer person. Before then I thought I would never be good at drag. Fast forward a bit, I moved to Montana in 2015 to follow my now-husband, because he’s a musician too and he got a job at the symphony orchestra in Great Falls. When I moved to Great Falls it was the first time in the better part of a decade where I was not steeped in any sort of queer culture. So I started to look out for, who are the queer people in this town? And I happened to find out about this drag troupe, pretty newly started, called the Mister Sisters. I reached out and said, “Hey, I just moved here, I’m glad this exists and I want to find a way to support you—let me know how I can help.”

We ended up meeting and my now drag mother, Lexi Tucker Dixon, put me in drag for the first time. I looked terrible but it was one of those things where I had a pretty clear persona and look even going into that. It all grew from there. Mister Sisters became pretty big and we started producing shows around the state. We did more theatrical style performances; it was more like a musical than anything. And we got asked at one point about doing a drag story hour and that’s how that got started as well.

I want to ask you about the drag story hour in a bit but first I’m curious about how drag fits into your life as a profession? Is it a full-time job or something you consider on the side while you support yourself financially in other ways?

It’s changed over the years. When I first got started I wasn’t thinking of doing this regularly; getting paid and making it a full-time career—it was definitely not that. But when you get a taste of success, you do get a little taste of the money side and whatnot. The Mister Sisters were the first troupe in Montana to put on shows and take away the proceeds. That was very unwelcomed, at least in the beginning. The Imperial Sovereign Court of the State of Montana produce their shows and donate their proceeds to charity, which is excellent, but not our model.

We were taking the money and reinvesting it in the art form. At that point I was doing drag 40 weeks out of the year but still worked a full-time salaried job.

Can you talk about your experience with Drag Story Hour and the law that was passed in 2023 that banned drag story hours in libraries?

Oh my god, yes. Children were not our target market, let me just say that. But the owner of Cassiopeia Books, Andrew reached out to us and said “Hey, is this something you would consider?” and we said sure. We got a little bit of flack, but it was pretty minimal. We had one person with a misspelled sign protesting our first event but we had more that 200 people show up. The hate was actually helping our cause; it was getting the word out. The event caught the attention of Jonathan Hamel, who was the executive director of Drag Story Hour and he asked us if we would want to start the official chapter in Montana, and we said, “Yes, of course.”

It really spread around the state but each subsequent event we did, the hate got more and more intense. 2022 was definitely the scariest moment. Chelsia and Charlie, the owners of Montana Book Company were receiving threats to the level where the FBI got involved. That was the moment when we had skinheads from northern Idaho making the trip to cause trouble at the event. It was touch and go but Chels and Charlie were not going to cancel it so they ended up organizing a grassroots dance party in the street. There was music blaring and any time one of the protestors tried to speak we blasted an airhorn, and that put an end to the megaphone pretty quickly. 

With the legislation in 2023, it didn’t really stop us all that much. We weren’t doing story hours in taxpayer-funded venues.

Have you noticed a shift in the temperature since then?

I would not venture to say that things have gotten better. There was a story hour at a tea house in Boseman they had to cancel due to a bomb threat.

Are you noticing venues being more or less willing to book drag shows? 

The drag scene in Montana has been going on since the nineties and in terms of 18-plus venues booking drag performances, the hate and the threats have certainly not stopped those folks from producing shows. Because there's such a long established trust between the queer community and those venues, which may or may not be queer owned, but certainly queer friendly in terms of story hours.

Yes, I would say the backlash has absolutely have absolutely given people pause. I mean, it's hard to quantify but it is definitely having an adverse effect, especially on kid-focused queer events.

Are you aware of any efforts to push back against these laws in Montana?

In full transparency, my husband and I recently moved to Colorado but there is movement in the state of Montana to the laws. The Imperial Sovereign Court of the state of Montana has been the organizing force behind that. They organized folks to go and appear in front of the Montana State legislature in drag to speak in opposition of those pieces of harmful legislation. There was a period of time there where even being seen in public in drag could technically be construed as an illegal activity depending on who saw it. And so we kind of all went into pride that year with this kind of “fuck it” attitude. We very much understand the legal liability that we're putting ourselves in, but it's still worth it, even if that means a fabulous mugshot in full face.

What words of wisdom would you have for an aspiring drag artist who doesn’t live in a major urban area?

Just start. Don’t wait for permission. Especially now with the amount of digital resources that are available to young people. Makeup tutorials have a wealth of diversity in terms of skin color, gender identity and sexual orientation. So leverage whatever resources you’re able to.

Even in a small town there is a community somewhere, you just have to find it. That can be tricky but just start talking to people. Find a venue, find a supportive friend group and just put yourself out there if you can.

 A lot of times, especially in the state of Montana, people think because of the low population that the drag is in some ways subpar. I have to say: the drag in Montana stands up to—if not surpasses—the drag in major metropolitan areas. It’s harder to have saturation in a smaller market but when an event does happen, it’s the thing that the queer community is looking out for and is so proud of in terms of a place where you can hold hands with the person you love without any sort of fear or judgment.

You can find out more about Julie Yard on her Instagram.