When We’re Here launched its fourth season earlier this spring, it was a bit of a rebirth. Original hosts Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka, and Shangela had been shown the door ( for good reason , in the third queen’s case), and the HBO series had undergone a creative retooling. Gone were the weekly trips to different cities, themed host costumes, and quick-and-teary featured story lines.
Instead, the new season focused on just two small towns — Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Bartlesville, Oklahoma — that had dealt with hotheaded community problems following recent Pride celebrations featuring drag queens. While Jaida Essence Hall joined hosts Sasha Velour and Priyanka for the three episodes in Tennessee, Latrice Royale stepped into that slot for the religiously charged visit to Oklahoma, bringing not just her “chunky yet funky” essence but also a youth spent in church alongside her mother, a minister, in Compton, California. Royale was ostensibly recruited to the We’re Here team to guide her charge, a local farmer named Randy, but she was also there to bring her rich well of life experiences to a town where thousands of people signed a petition to protest a public drag show at a Pride event the year prior, effectively pushing queens out of the public eye.
Latrice has spent years in the drag trenches, and her backstory — a stint in prison, a charming marriage, and her current life in Florida — leads you to believe she cares about what’s happening in Bartlesville a.
