Jaremi Carey: ‘Your Vote Matters’

Drag Out the Vote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that works with drag performers to promote participation in democracy, recently launched its Drag Ambassador Program, a first-of-its-kind initiative to mobilize drag artists across America to increase voter participation in their communities this November.

Drag has blended art and activism since the 60s. From the Stonewall uprising to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence organizing and educating the queer community during the HIV/AIDs crisis of the 80s, drag artists have always commanded attention, spoken their minds, and challenged the world’s perceptions of gender. Now, they are uniting to increase voter turnout for one of the country’s most important elections.

Once trained, Drag Ambassadors will be equipped with social media content, video PSA scripts, resources for voter registration, and more. One in five LGBTQ people are not registered to vote, and over 100 million people did not vote in 2016.

OUT FRONT had the opportunity to chat with Drag Out the Vote co-chair Jaremi Carey. Formerly known as Phi Phi O’Hara, Carey is a drag performer, transformation artist, actor, and singer who competed on RuPaul’s Drag Race season four and All Stars 2. We talked more about the program, why it is so important to be involved, what the Trump presidency has taught us, and what life has been like since retiring Phi Phi.Hi, Jaremi! Thank you for taking some time to chat with me about Drag Out the Vote. Let me begin by asking, how are you coping during these unprecedented times?
When I’m not touring and everything, I am just at home. I don’t leave my house [laughs]. We joke that I stay in bed all day and play video games. So, I’m great!

Drag Out the Vote launched a Drag Ambassador Program. Can you tell us more about it?
Right now, the co-chairs of Drag Out the Vote, Brita Filter, Marti G Cummings, and myself, we do a lot already, but our schedules are so busy that we wish we could do more. So, we put a call out there so we can get a lot more queens who want to get involved.

When I did the benefit for Puerto Rico, Jackie Huba was like my assistant. We later met together, and she brought up the idea of doing Drag Out the Vote. Like, how can we bring in a mix of drag and politics? It’s already so political to do drag.

She brought up the idea of Drag Out the Vote, and it was perfect. We did, like, a Queens-United-meets-Drag-Out-the-Vote show in Minneapolis, and so many queens wanted to be a part of it. This is what we can do to include them. So, Jackie and her team created this call for queens to come out and help.

By doing the Queens United fundraiser for Hurricane Maria relief, that is how you initially got involved and became a co-chair?
Yes. Jackie too my idea and made it bigger and better, which is amazing. She’s like, ‘You’re great at this stuff. There’s no way I can do this without you on my team.’ I have known Jackie for years, and I have always said if I can help, I will help. This is so close to my heart; I was like, absolutely. I accepted in a heartbeat.

Do you have to be a drag queen or drag artist to be involved with the Ambassador Program?
No. We are calling all drag kings and queens a like, nonbinary people, trans artists, any artist in the LGBTQ community can come together and apply.

Why is Drag Out the Vote so important to you?
Well, in our current climate, there are a lot of things at stake for us. Our LGBTQ family members, people of color, Black, trans women, trans women in general, trans men—it is very important that they get involved, and I think this year has opened a lot of people’s eyes.

If you just don’t speak up or care enough to know who’s supposed to be working for you and your community to make it better and safer, bad things can happen. Negative things will come from that. So, I think a lot more people are caring to become involved, and I am glad that I can help inspire that.

Why do you think drag queens and drag artists have such an influential platform?
For me, I have no problem saying stuff, as a lot of people know [laughs]. I think it takes a drag queen to say that because we have such big personalities, and I think a lot of people look at drag queens as nurturing. They are like a parent figure and someone you can trust.

I think that’s why people gravitate towards drag queens, and drag queens have always been at the forefront of political movements, civil rights movements, anything like that. We are fighters; we’re loud, and people will listen to us.

What are you personally doing with your platform to get more people involved with politics and social justice advocacy?
I have always, always encouraged people, so this was not, like, a hard switch or hard thing to do. Like, when I decided to drop the whole Phi Phi name and everything. I’ll do drag if I want to do drag, I just don’t want that to be limited to just Phi Phi. Right now, I am in the gaming world, and I do a lot of cosplay. I did a lot of convention touring prior to COVID, so that is where my main focus is now, which is really cool because there is such a huge LGBTQ demographic within the gaming world.

So, for instance, when I talked to Jackie and her team, I was like, what can we do that’s still drag and still LGBTQ-centered, but around me? We came up with Gaga Ball, and we raised $3,100 for Drag Out the Vote. Drag Out the Vote and Jackie have been so amazing about working with artists to help create something that can help put out the best version of themselves.

It is mind boggling to know that over 100 million people did not vote in the 2016 election. Why do you think that is?
Right? I think it’s education. A lot of people don’t know. They don’t know where to go; they don’t know who’s running; they think there’s only one election when there are so many very important primaries that need to happen. It’s education.

Even during my streams, we would switch to slideshows that would give accurate information. I think that is also very important. With social media, it is so easy to share false information, and I think it’s cool that with such a big platform that I have, I can help spread the correct information. I really do think people just didn’t know. A lot of people use ignorant as a bad term, but it’s not. It just means you didn’t know. I think a lot of people are ignorant on how they can get involved and how they can vote. It’s not easy to vote in America.

Why do you think it is such a challenge to get LGBTQ people and young people to get out and vote?
I don’t want to say education again, but it’s the same thing. When I visit youth centers and everything like that, a lot of them were like, ‘Where do I go? What do I do? Where’s that at? When is that?’ Those are the questions I get, and it really comes down to spreading the proper and accurate information.

Sometimes, it might take us literally holding their hand. Like, ‘Hey, look, if you need me to go with you, let’s go. I’ll show you where it’s at.’ That’s when the Drag Ambassador Program comes into play because I can’t do that to everybody. So, that is when this program comes in handy.

Many people believe that their vote does not matter. What can we do to change this perception? To make people realize that voting is a privilege, and that it is incredibly irresponsible not to vote.
If Donald Trump has shown us anything, it’s that our vote does matter. That we can create a lot of change together. I have been a part of the protest and marches that have been happening, and people are listening. I think that shows people that there are enough of us out there that can create change, and there are enough of us out there that actually care.

It sounds crazy, but I really think it took Donald Trump and everything that’s happening for people to finally open their eyes and see. Your vote matters. It sucks that it had to come to this, but it needed to.

Do you recall what was going through your mind when Trump was elected?
Oh yeah, I cried. I cried that night. I remember my husband, we weren’t even married yet, and I remember we were sitting in front of the TV and we were like, ‘What? What is going on? This is not happening.’

For me, I see myself as very political, and watching him who just came off a TV show, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what we’re putting out. Like, I can do this.’ But yes, that night, I literally cried, and I remember telling me husband, let’s go get married now.

So, we didn’t even have the wedding that we wanted, but we were like, what if they threaten LGBTQ rights and take them away? Sure enough, things with this administration have not been great for the LGBTQ community.

I think that has shown people that we need to pay attention to who is running, what they stand for, their background, the people they surround themselves with, everything.

I dread to even ask this, but what do you think will happen to this country if we by chance get four more years of him?
Every day changes with him. You don’t know what you are going to get, and that’s the scary part. Every day, it seems like he’s becoming more and more unhinged, and I do want reiterate that all of my political beliefs do not coincide with anything with Drag Out the Vote. These are my personal opinions and feelings.

Drag Out the Vote is great because they are non-partisan. The important part is just getting people to vote and educating them. I think that’s amazing, so these feelings are all my own personal beliefs. So, presidents do their worst in their last four years because they’re not coming back. I feel like we have already seen hell with him, and it’s going to get worse.

Would you ever run for political office?
[Laughs]. I joke about it with my husband and say that I would, but no, I probably wouldn’t. I can already imagine the campaign, everywhere it would be, ‘Go back to Party City.’ It would be too much. I’ll sit in the background and help people. I have a horrible mouth; I’m not always politically correct, but my heart is always in the right place.

I would like to switch gears and ask you a couple nonpolitical questions. How has your life been now that you have officially retired Phi Phi?
I am at my happiest because I’m not tied down to that name. If I did anything that was, like, male presenting, they would be like, ‘This isn’t drag; this isn’t that, whatever.’ Like, it’s my art. Jaremi is the artist. Jaremi has always been the artist; Phi Phi is just a cartoon character. It’s like Tyler Perry doing Madea. You don’t go, ‘Hey Madea!’ That’s just a character he created.

So, it’s refreshing to know that the hard work that I have been doing for year is getting recognized as Jaremi, and Phi Phi is just a creation from Jaremi. I have always been a gamer, always been a nerd, so being part of Twitch now, that community has been so open and welcoming. I love it; I am super happy. I will do drag when I want to do drag; it’s not like I’m ending it. It’s just now on my terms.

Has retiring Phi Phi allowed you to evolve more as an artist?
Yes. You know what’s funny? Drag Race is always like, ‘We want you to grow. We want you to do this and that and blah, blah, blah, but yet, nobody lets the artist grow. What they see on TV is what they are known for forever and ever and ever.

You’re like, how am I supposed to grow when you guys keep holding me back in this box? So, letting it go has been the best thing and I can do whatever I want. Phi Phi is not Jaremi anymore.

You will always be known as one of the most polarizing queens to ever emerge from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Do you still have any hard feelings with the show, Ru, or your fellow contestants?
No. There are people that I don’t talk to from the show, and that’s fine. I’m 34 years old, so if they are not adding anything positive to my circle, then I don’t need you in my life. That goes with anybody, not even just people on the show.

The show, I will say, and I have always said, and I have always paid my respects to the show and talk about how they have given me this platform, but when it comes down to creating anything positive for me, the show didn’t do that. I did that. They painted me in this light of being this horrible person, and I’m not.

So, I wish the show cared a little but more about their contestants. I wish it would respect women. I wish it would respect trans women. It has such a huge platform; I think they should represent all voices in the LGBTQ community.

What is the number-one thing that the show has taught you?
Everybody says love [laughs]. I already had thick skin before the show, but the show has really shown me I just don’t f*cking care what people think of me. Like, I’m going to do what I do, and the people that like me will be around me and support me.

Like I said, my heart’s in the right place, and I’m a good person; I like to have fun. The negative people that don’t comprehend how TV works, or how, quote unquote, reality TV, I just laugh at it now. The show has given me quite a thick skin.

Do you have any music projects in the works?
I actually just switched management. I stopped putting out music because the last management I was with, there were some issues. I left PEG, which runs a lot of the girls, but a lot of girls left PEG for a reason, and those reasons finally kicked into play.

Like, I can’t do that anymore. So, I just switched, and the new management, I literally signed onto them before COVID started. I was on tour when it all happened. I left the tour early to come back home, and then we went on lockdown. So, we haven’t done much of anything, which is why Twitch and streaming has been so amazing, but music will be coming.

What about Instagram challenges?
I do have more photo challenges coming. This year marks the 100th year anniversary of the 19th Amendment for women to vote, so this challenge I did a worldwide callout for people to get involved.

I will be doing a lot of the transformations that are in New York, locally, of different women, but there are people around the world that are getting involved in my next photo project, which I think is really cool. They will be transforming themselves into whatever political that’s changed and shaped our history.

Do you have any other projects we should be on the lookout for?
The 100th anniversary is going to be a big one; that’s August 18. It’s going to be a very political photo series, and it is going to help educate people with Drag Out the Vote. I am so excited for that, but I have also been working on a comic book. That has been taking up a lot of time because I want it to be right. I don’t want it to be rushed, and I always wanted to do a comic book that’s good and people want to read. I want to produce a great series.

For more information on Drag Out the Vote, visit dragoutthevote2020.org. Applications for the Drag Ambassador Program are now available. To stay up-to-date with Carey, follow him on social media.

Photos Courtesy of Jaremi Carey & Mikhael Ortega