Ilona Verley was recently targeted and attacked because of her gender identity.
The drag performer revealed that she and her friend, Ashley, were subjected to anti-trans slurs in a Burger King in Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, and according to her tweets, it turned into a physical altercation.
Ilona, who rose to fame earlier this year as a contestant on Canada’s Drag Race, was in the area because she was hosting a viewing party for her season one sister, Jimbo.
She wrote on 21 August: “Ashley and I just got ATTACKED in Victoria at the Burger King by some ducking transphobic assholes calling us TR**NIES. I’m fucking LIVID AS HELL.”
“U best believe home got his ass whooped and my wig is still the fuck on,” she continued, before assuring fans: “We’re fine and heading back to Jimbo’s. Just fucking shaking as hell.”
Ilona’s tweet prompted fans to share similar experiences in Victoria, a city that “seems like a progressive place,” but continues to be a hotspot for anti-LGBTQ+ violence. “That place is an absolute cesspool after the bar scene closes. I have seen this first hand happen to my friends downtown late so night,” said one fan.
Another wrote: “My heart hurts for you going through that. The island is pretty bad for anyone-not-cishet-phobia. I’m about three hours away in a small town and it’s all the same. I hope your heart can heal as well as they can from your whooping.”
https://twitter.com/IlonaVerley/status/1296697623290589190
Shortly before the attack took place, Ilona called out transphobic members of the LGBTQ+ community, writing: “BEING QUEER DOES NOT EXCUSE YOUR TRANSPHOBIA.”
“Feeling like I’m not gonna be taken serious as a trans woman until I have inches down to my ass and breasts out past my chin,” she added. “Y’all so ugly with your dehumanization of trans women that aren’t up to YOUR standards.”
Ilona – who was eliminated in sixth place on Canada’s Drag Race – made HERstory for, not just the Canadian spin-off, but the entire franchise as the first ever Indigenous, two-spirit and openly non-binary contestant. Following her elimination, Ilona told GAY GIMES: “For me, gender diversity is really important.
https://twitter.com/IlonaVerley/status/1296209527646244864
https://twitter.com/IlonaVerley/status/1296221304597524480
“Even though in today’s society it’s more accepted and people have the freedom to express their gender, there’s still so much loss of opportunities for people who are trans and non-binary. To go onto this platform and be super open about being non-binary, seeing myself as non-binary, seeing myself as female, being two-spirit, that to me was just as important as representing for Indigenous people.
“There are so many trans and non-binary kids that don’t get the same opportunities as everybody else, and that’s something I’m really fighting for, is it to make sure that all performers in the drag industry gets the same opportunities.”
You can read our full interview with Ilona Verley here.
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