SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Guided nature walks are common, but they do not usually feature a lavender wig, knee-high vinyl heels and pearls. One regular outdoor walk in Portland, Oregon, does, though. It's called Drag Me Outside, and Oregon Public Broadcasting's Lisa Wood took in the sights.
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LISA WOOD, BYLINE: In Portland's Mt. Tabor Park, wooded trails lead to reservoirs lined by lush hillsides. And 20 or so people are gathered around two hike leaders to learn more about the nature here.
THESPIS D LIGHT: Look at this little hover fly darling. They are doing something called cryptic mimicry. Other species will see them and be like, oh, that's a bee, I'm not going to mess with that, I'm not going to try to eat that. These little guys are super-duper cute, and they're amazing pollinators, like all flies are. Oh, and now they're fighting. Boys, boys, please. There's enough of me to go around (laughter).
WOOD: That's Thespis D. Light, a former park ranger and wildlife conservationist who uses his drag king name for these walks. He's one half of the pair who created and volunteered to lead this new bimonthly nature walk called Drag Me Outside. Efemmera Gendera is the other half of the equation. Again, that's her drag name. She's a biologist and environmental scientist. She might want to get a Ph.D. and teach at a university one day, but she loves making information accessible to people on these walks.
EFEMMERA GENDERA: So I'm able to take these very niche things that I like to talk about and bring it to the public and don't just gatekeep it behind a university.
WOOD: The pair are as colorful as our surroundings. Thespis is in a fringy jacket with dangly pearl earrings and hair made out of blue and gold sparkly ribbons. Efemmera's wearing a blue dress she made herself, with a rainbow belt and knee-high vinyl heels. To test a location ahead of time, Efemmera walks the paths in those heels. If she can't do it, it doesn't make the cut.
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WOOD: Thespis starts the hike with an icebreaker question - what's your favorite bird?
THESPIS: I'm just going to go ahead and stick with the northern flicker. They are a species of woodpecker, and they are so cool, and I really hope we see some today.
WOOD: Participants list off eagle, penguin, raven and albatross, among others. Efemmera's is the cedar waxwing.
EFEMMERA: If you've never seen it, they look like they've been spray brushed. They will pick berries off of plants and feed them to each other. If they eat too many overripe berries, they will be laying on the ground drunk.
WOOD: The Bird Alliance of Oregon gets calls about the cedar waxwings when they've had a few too many. People can call or bring the birds to the organization's drunk tank so that they can sleep it off in a safe place away from predators. The walk is roughly two hours and two miles, with lots of educational breaks.
THESPIS: Oh, we got some thimbleberries here.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Oh.
THESPIS: They are a really beautiful native berry plant. A ranger that I worked with who called them nature's toilet paper...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Ah.
THESPIS: ...Because they are probably the softest leaves. That's, like, 30-ply right there.
WOOD: Efemmera and Thespis started these walks because they love the environment, but they also say that not every queer person feels safe going for a walk in the woods. So they wanted to create a space where people felt secure in a big group. Everyone is welcome on this walk, but a lot of those who show up are queer. Leading a nature walk in drag also serves another purpose.
THESPIS: You got to find a way to connect to every single person that's there, from the person that's there that loves bees more than anything in the world to that guy who hates bees.
WOOD: Thespis says that doing these walks in drag transforms it into a kind of show, which makes people want to sign up. In or out of drag, Efemmera says this work is a labor of love.
EFEMMERA: Science should give you awe and a wonder for the natural world and, like, a curiosity to explore more.
WOOD: She says it's meaningful to give people that sense of wonder and hopefully inspire them to take steps to help preserve the environment around them.
For NPR News, I'm Lisa Wood in Portland, Oregon. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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