Atlanta’s Dolly Parton-inspired drag queen, other LGBTQ community members mourn
It’s not just Dolly Parton’s Southern roots, or her glamorous looks and quippy one-liners that inspire Gerome Stephens.
“The depth of what she did was making these small decisions, these micro decisions that change your life,” Stephens said.
Decisions like leaving her family’s farm in Eastern Tennessee to pursue her dreams in Nashville, and parting with her musical partner Porter Wagoner. By the time Stephens saw Parton in the TV movie “A Smoky Mountain Christmas” in 1986, she was already an international star, but she never shied away from her past.
Throughout Stephens’ life, from when he took a chance on leaving his hometown in Kentucky to get a Ph.D. as a first-generation college student, to when he became a drag performer in Atlanta under the name Parton Waters, Dolly Parton’s example showed him it was possible to change your life.
Dolly Parton’s death on Tuesday has been mourned across nearly every segment of the population, demonstrating just how far-reaching the Tennessee native’s impact was.
For many in the LGBTQ+ community, Dolly Parton represented a bastion of love and support from a region and a musical genre that are not always welcoming.
“It’s way bigger than being Southern or any of those other pieces,” Stephens said. “She had a way of storytelling that anybody can find themselves in her story and take energy from it, because she was so open about her struggles and about staying true to where she’s coming from, but also knowing that you can create the you that you want.”
In honor of Dolly Parton’s legacy, several Atlanta LGBTQ+ spaces are holding tributes in her memory, including a karaoke night at Lore this past Tuesday, a Dolly Parton drag brunch at Lips on Sunday and Dolly queer line dancing night at My Sister’s Room this Sunday..
Stephens heard the news of Dolly Parton’s death when he opened his phone to a flood of sympathetic messages. Stephens has performed as Parton Waters, a Dolly Parton-inspired drag queen, for about four years. On stage, Parton Waters has a knack for country music, clogging, glamorous costumes and a towering blonde wig.
Stephens said he’s still processing the loss, especially as people reach out to him about performing Dolly Parton tribute shows in the coming weeks. He’s trying to decide how to navigate this shift and what it means for him and Parton Waters.
“I have as much of her as I ever had,” he said on the phone several days after the news of her death, his voice choked with emotion. “What I think the world lost, though, is someone who was consistently able to respond to the world that was around her creatively, compassionately and actively.”
Stephens’ first solo drag performance was during a drag brunch in 2022 when he debuted Parton Waters, thinking that it would be a one-time thing.
“I watch all her movies all the time and just love that look and the big hair. She’s a drag queen, so it wasn’t that hard to turn it into a drag look,” he said.
He said he was scared before that first performance, but it sold out and by the following year, he had leaned all the way into the Parton Waters persona. As a country music lover, he performs primarily to songs by female country artists.
For Stephens’ first Atlanta Pride as Parton Waters, he had a coat made inspired by what Parton wore at the Newport Folk Festival in 2019 when she sang “I Will Always Love You” with Brandi Carlile.
“(It’s) like little Gerome’s childhood dream to have that jacket that I could spin around in,” he said. “Dolly Parton gave the permission for all of that, but it wasn’t a direct order. It was more like, all these little moments of ‘be yourself, do your thing, it’s OK that you’re gay,’ there’s power in it.”
Parton was unequivocal about her support for the LGBTQ+ community. While some people claim that she wasn’t political, “just in the way that she stood up for people, the most downtrodden, it is political. It’s its own form of advocacy,” said Terence Ng, a co-founder of LGBTQ line dancing group DanceOut.
She was consistent in her support of queer people, Ng said, down to her song “Travelin’ Thru’” that she created for the 2005 film “Transamerica.”
DanceOut organizer and instructor Joseph Winkler grew up in Northwest Georgia, as someone who didn’t always fit “this traditional mold,” and came to appreciate Parton more as he got older.
“It’s like having a hero in your corner, somebody that both supports you and also actively fights for you,” Winkler said.
On Thursday evening, DanceOut held a Dolly Parton tribute night at Heretic Atlanta on Cheshire Bridge Road, where the group played Parton’s music, collected donations for her nonprofit Imagination Library and encouraged attendees to take inspiration from Parton.
Two of Ng’s favorite Parton songs to dance to are “Islands in the Stream” and “Dumb Blonde,” he said.
Winkler said he’s partial to some of the songs Parton made with actor Leslie Jordan when they re-recorded old gospel songs.
“It’s fun to mix, you know, something that was very much a part of my life, like the gospel piece, but actually be able to do it in a space that is so welcoming and accepting,” Winkler said.
For as one-of-a-kind as Parton was, Ng believes the challenge everyone faces now is to emulate her generosity and acceptance.
“Everything that we ascribe to her about what makes her indelible and iconic is because she chose to be those things,” he said. “This is an achievable ...thing that we can all be, and I think that is incredible.”