Today we’d like to introduce you to Anya Bacon
Hi Anya, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in the Great White North of Logan, UT. I grew up in the LDS Church, as many in our state did. Besides the typical struggles of growing into a body that had things happening that I didn’t understand and was never properly educated on, growing up queer in conservative rural Utah was another level of misery I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I was also a caregiver to several cancer diagnoses in my immediate family from the age of 5 in 1999, up through October 2023. To say that my upbringing was anything but typical would be an understatement to be completely honest.
Although Logan has come a long way since I was young, it was not the easiest place to be anything besides a cisgender, straight, Mormon. I was constantly targeted and bullied for both my size and my stereotypical outward appearance of queerness at school. I was continually made to feel like an abomination at church. And with up to 3 active cancer patients in our house at any given time, my family was otherwise occupied. When I came out to my bishop as a teenager, it was decided that I would begin conversion therapy. After all, “It will lift that extra burden from your parents,” my bishop told me, referring to my queerness. I endured years of this “therapy”, which only made me more desperate to be “cured of my gayness” so that I could be “worthy”.
A typical week of my teenage years looked like this:
Sunday: Church, family scripture study, and personal scripture study
Monday: School, homework and family medical care, “church-sponsored therapy”, homework and family medical care
Tuesday: School, homework and family medical care, youth activities, scripture study, homework and family medical care
Wednesday: School, homework and family medical care, homework and family medical care
Thursday: School, homework and family medical care, “church-sponsored therapy”, scripture study
Friday: School, homework and family medical care, “progress check in” with bishop, personal scripture study
Saturday: Personal scripture study, homework, family medical care,
By the time I reached high school, I had already lost two family members to cancer. But I was able to come out socially during my sophomore year, after joining the drama and art departments. I loved the (limited) freedom of being myself at school and being able to find a small community. Those who stayed with me after coming out truly got me through those years of unknowns. These amazing individuals helped me endure the onslaught of getting shoved into lockers, getting hate speech hurled at me from all different directions, the violent notes left in my locker and personal belongings, and other such small-minded nonsense. During my high school career, I got to watch my small community grow from two of us being publicly out with less than 10 allies, to becoming a group of over 3 dozen individuals by the time I graduated in 2012. During this same time, my mom’s health significantly declined due to cancer and she had to take a medical retirement from a career she loved. She became wheelchair-bound, she was on oxygen 24/7, she had a feeding tube and a colostomy bag, and she needed constant care.
After my mom passed a few months later, I “felt the righteous need” to serve a full-time mission for the LDS church. I spoke with my bishop, began going back to the church that had so severely damaged me and was told I needed to lose weight to be eligible. I began a year of higher education at Snow College and worked toward preparing for my mission. After that year, I worked out daily, I would eat rice and chicken breast, and I would study scripture. I got caught up in old mindsets of “if I work harder, surely I’ll be rewarded and become worthy” about both my weight loss and my queerness. I became so obsessive over becoming who I was “supposed to be” and wanting what I was “supposed to want”, I was forced into the behavioral health unit under constant supervision. This ended up being one of the best things for my life. This is when I would rather be myself, a sarcastic ray of queer sunshine than be the miserable, hollow person I was “supposed” to be.
Since this experience, I started performing in drag as Anya Bacon. Anya’s debut was (to my knowledge) the first-ever public drag show in Logan, in August 2017. I have been able to take part in many Logan Pride festivals, and my life continues to grow. As of now, I am on the board of directors for a non-profit called the United Drag Alliance, I am a member of the national organization Drag Story Time, I am lucky enough to be a resident performer at 2 separate bars in downtown Salt Lake City (Why Kiki and Club Try-Angles), I have 2 monthly brunch shows at Mosaics in Provo, I get to work with Logan Pride Foundation to continue aiding my hometown community in growing and cultivating resources I wish I had when I was young.
Being as out, proud, and loud as I am now has also come with its risks. In recent years, I have personally received not only countless online threats of being unalived and other acts of major violence, but I have also lived through being physically assaulted for my queerness. Because unfortunately, we can’t change our world overnight. But what these individuals don’t realize, is that I’m still not done. I have more life to live, and that means more people are going to get help.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Getting to where I am now in life has not been easy at all, if I’m being honest. With there being cancer in my home for over 20 years, I developed several unhealthy coping skills that I am actively trying to improve in myself. In large part, these were developed due to the constant requirement of caretakers to put our needs and wants on the back burner to take care of the cancer patient(s) in our lives. What I think a lot of people don’t see in situations of cancer, is the caretakers. Everyone rallies around the patient, as we should. But when all of that support goes home, all of the responsibility falls to the caretakers. We are the ones getting the patients to the doctor appointments, transfusions, infusions, and scans on time. Making sure the correct medications get taken on time. Keeping their mental health as high as possible. Making sure all of their needs are met, and fulfilling as many of their wants as possible. Watching a community of people rally around a loved one, and completely disregarding you who is in the same room, really changes a person.
Going through a faith crisis while taking care of loved ones and being a queer teenager was a struggle that lasted years. There was so much going on in my mind that I didn’t understand, I am still trying to unpack and work through a lot of it today.
These days the threats of violence have moved from the school hallway to online and darkened parking lots. Gone are the days of being shoved into a locker or to the floor. Now, I have to wait outside buildings to start all ages events as a bomb squad does another sweep.
This road has been anything but easy. But it certainly has been one I am better for having traveled.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My style of drag is very different than what most people expect when they come to a drag show. I have a semi-chaotic way of thinking, and it shows in my mixes haha. I pull a lot of inspiration from Broadway, classic drag comics, old-school vaudeville performances, and even pop culture. Something that I think is particularly fun about my art is that I can be bizarre and wild at a bar on Friday night, and become a fun-loving jovial storyteller for 5-year-olds on Saturday afternoon. I love that I get to make such a wide range of people laugh and smile.
In general, I think I am best known for being a ridiculous comedy queen on stage, and your favorite wine aunt backstage. I have been told, “I never know what you’re going to do on stage, but I know that I’m going to love it!” And that was truly a huge compliment. I want to keep people guessing, but I also want them to walk away with a smile in their hearts.
I am truly proud of the growth of my art. From anxty teenage doodles to performing throughout the Intermountain West, my art has helped me connect with so many beautiful people in very special ways. In my opinion, nothing can connect two souls like art.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
There are changes that I sincerely believe need to come along. I truly hope, and continue to work towards, promoting those who don’t have the same opportunities that I have. Some things I feel very passionately about is that there needs to be more all-ages queer-affirming events in Utah as a whole. This is why I work so passionately with the United Drag Alliance. There needs to be less of a gap in bookings between drag queens and drag kings. Despite the crazy amount of talent that our local kings have and the tireless work of individuals such as Liam Manchesthair and Willie Touchya, kings are unfortunately overlooked still due to old ways of thinking by many producers and event organizers. There needs to be more support and celebration for the people of color in our community. Very few people realize that the first full-time drag queen of color in the entire state of Utah was SLC’s own Sally Cone Slopes.
As far as the industry as a whole, I see more diversity on the horizon. I love that there are now several drag reality shows highlighting different types of drag. There’s Ru Paul’s Drag Race for the quintessential drag fans, there’s the Boulet Brother’s Dragula for alt-drag. There’s Camp Wannakiki for campy drag, there’s Drag Den, Call Me Mother, We’re Here, and so on. And that truly makes my heart smile. I don’t think it’s going to be a simple and easy transition by any means. But I think the days of a single person in any given community being able to describe exactly what all drag is and should be are gone.
I also sincerely hope that in the future we can stop cliques from forming and put an end to pettiness. I truly believe the only way forward is as a community. And we need to come together so that we can move forward together. I love my community, and I want my community to love itself too.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theanyabacon?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
