This coverage is made possible through a partnership between BPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.

This weekend, Asheville’s Blue Ridge Pride celebration is coinciding with the anniversary of Helene. And Asheville is getting a visitor: Pattie Gonia, climate drag queen. She’s the main event of a show called SAVE HER. She uses her drag shows to fundraise for LGBTQ and environmental causes, and runs a nonprofit called the Outdoorist Oath, which aims to get queer youth feeling safe in the outdoors.

The region is recovering from Helene, and LGBT rights face mounting challenges nationally To Pattie Gonia, this isn’t coincidental, and she wants people to see the link between the two issues.

“When I think about Asheville and Hurricane Helene and coming to celebrate Blue Ridge Pride, I think a lot about this quote from the AIDS crisis that said that they would mourn in the morning, fight in the afternoon, and dance in the evening, and it’s the dancing that we keep them going,” Pattie Gonia told BPR. “So, our show is mourning loss. It is definitely fighting back and it is definitely dancing to keep us going.”

Tonight’s performance comes as many libraries and schools in the region have fielded anti-LGBTQ protests.

This year, Blue Ridge Pride’s overall theme is “resilience and resistance,” with a focus on climate activism and Helene recovery. “As with all disasters, Helene disproportionately affected those at the intersections of marginalized identities,” reads Blue Ridge Pride’s website. “When we had nowhere to go, no one coming to save us, we stepped up for each other.”