MAX
COURIER LIFE, J M B G AN. 18–24, 2019 29
FREE TO BE: Desmond’s dad and mom said they receive
almost daily visits from city social workers investigating
complaints fi led against them after their son’s December
show at Williamsburg’s 3 Dollar Bill, but refuse to let their
critics get them, or their boy, down.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
DRAG KID
Continued from page 14
“He went as Elsa for Halloween, and something
really clicked for him,” she said. “After that, every
time we went to the store, he wanted a skirt or a
dress.”
Unsure of their son’s burgeoning sense of style,
Napoles and her husband took Desmond to a therapist,
who advised neither discouraging, nor encouraging
his behavior, and suggested it could just
be a passing phase.
It wasn’t, said mom.
“It was never a phase for him, and soon dressing
up at home wasn’t enough,” she said. “He wanted to
dress up and go outside — then he wanted to perform.”
Desmond made an early drag appearance in a
music video for fellow queen Jinkx Monsoon —
who won the fi fth season of television’s “RuPaul’s
Drag Race” competition series — but his career really
took off after his Pride appearance went viral,
Napoles said.
Since then, the boy has rubbed shoulders with
RuPaul himself at the iconic queen’s DragCon
convention, walked the New York Fashion Week
runway as a model for designer Gypsy Sport, and
signed with a talent company, which started booking
shows for Desmond earlier this year, according
to his mom.
On stage, the tween wows spectators by doing
impersonations of celebrities including Gwen Stefani,
whom he channeled during his so-called controversial
performance at 3 Dollar Bill, and Winona
Ryder as Lydia Deetz from the fi lm “Beetlejuice,”
Napoles said.
And although Desmond may have inherited
his early wardrobe from his mother, she said his
penchant for performing in front of an audience is
uniquely his own.
“He has no nervousness,” said Napoles. “He just
gets up there. I don’t know where he gets the confi -
dence. I could never do it. I would die.”