[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E356] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-26
Chamber: EXTENSIONS
Ms. TOKUDA: I rise today to congratulate Hawaii-born Sasha Kekauoha, more famously known as Sasha Colby, on being crowned the winner of ``RuPaul's Drag Race'' Season 15. I am so proud that a fellow Windward girl, hailing from the homesteads of Waimanalo, has earned the title of America's Next Drag Superstar. With her historic win, Sasha became the first person of Native Hawaiian ancestry to compete and win the competition, the fourth trans contestant to ever win Drag Race U.S., and the first American Drag Race winner to have also won the annual Miss Continental drag pageant. RuPaul herself even referred to Sasha as, ``the kind of talent that comes around once in a generation.'' Born and raised in Waimanalo, Hawaii, Sasha is the youngest of seven children and attended Kailua High School. Her drag journey began when she started taking dance classes at a local studio. Having grown up in a very religious household, Sasha spent much of her youth as a closeted trans person, living in constant fear of being found out. However, dance gave her the opportunity to be herself and meet and be with others that identified as LGBTQ+. Through that dance studio, Sasha met her drag mom and made friends who would become her second family. Together, they showed her what life could be like living as a trans woman and helped introduce Sasha to the drag performance scene. Sasha, a seasoned drag legend with 20 years of experience, had one of the most accomplished runs on RuPaul's Drag Race. She showed an undeniable confidence in her approach to nearly every challenge. Sasha came into the finale with the strongest track record of any of her competitors--along with never landing in the bottom in any of the show's challenges, she also racked up four challenge wins over the course of the season, more than any other queen on the show. From the very start of the 15-week-long competition, Sasha put her vulnerabilities front and center for the world to see, often drawing upon her Native Hawaiian and Irish heritage and childhood trauma as sources of inspiration for her performances. Throughout Drag Race, she authentically represented her Hawaiian culture both in her looks and interviews, talking about the legacy she's building for her home state and about being mahu. Mahu are ``third gender'' individuals who fulfill spiritual and social roles in traditional Hawaiian culture. Centuries ago, four large stones were placed on Waikiki Beach to honor four mahu, ``extraordinary individuals of both male and female spirit,'' who brought their healing powers to O`ahu from Tahiti. Today, trans people are still among the most revered members in the Hawaiian community. Sasha also used her platform to share with the nation and the rest of the world the stories of Hawaii, Polynesian culture, and the trans experience in America. For example, on the show, she introduced audiences to the history of Honolulu nightclubs like The Glades Nightclub in the 1950s and 1960s. The Glades would get raided weekly by police and for ``misrepresenting'' themselves as female drag queens and trans women would have to wear a button that read, ``I'm a Boy,'' or face the possibility of being arrested and paying a hefty fine. Seventy years later, we are seeing increasing attacks on LGBTQ+ rights that particularly target trans people and drag queens including state laws banning drag queen performances and gender affirming care. In her own words, Sasha says, ``I am literally the living embodiment of what they [state legislators] want to eradicate.'' But these anti-trans attacks have not deterred Sasha at all. She said it best during the Drag Race finale: ``This goes to every trans person, past, present and future,'' she said. ``Because we are not going anywhere.'' Sasha's win is not only well deserved; it gives us hope. I look forward to all that Sasha will accomplish as a leader, a proud mahu, and an activist, and I know that she will continue to serve as a beacon of light and hope to so many people across the country and around the world who are afraid or unable to be fully themselves. Congratulations to Sasha Colby. She is truly every drag queen's favorite drag queen.