“We’re Here” creators explain why watching show is “urgent” amid LGBTQ hate

It is “urgent” that people watch We’re Here to understand how hatred towards the LGBTQ community can spread if left unchecked, and what can be done to tackle it, show co-creator Stephen Warren has told Newsweek.

The Emmy-winning reality series sees RuPaul’s Drag Race icons Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka and Shangela travel to small towns across the country to spread love and help residents of the community, with the week-long trip culminating in a one-night-only drag show that the queens put on for the town.

But Season 3 of the HBO show proved more challenging to make than previous seasons, creators Warren and Johnnie Ingram and director Peter LoGreco explained to Newsweek, because of how some people treated them and the queens during filming.

‘We’re Here’ Creators Explain Why Watching Show is ‘Urgent’ Amid LGBTQ Hate

In places like Granbury, Texas, and St. George, Utah, the show’s creative team and the queens were subjected to abuse both online and in-person.

One instance saw people call Bob “an abomination” while walking through the town in search of ice cream, with one person even claiming that drag queens groom children. In another, the drag queen story hour that the team had prepared with Shangela had to be canceled because of violent threats a person had made to the establishment it was going to be in. Luckily, Shangela was able to host an impromptu story hour at another location.

In Utah, some people also attempted to have the team’s permits pulled so that they couldn’t perform their drag show at the end of the week, but thanks to the collective efforts of the LGBTQ community and allies in the town the show was saved.

It was moments like this, both the bad and the good, that proved to the creators that We’re Here is necessary viewing for everyone.

“The world really turned upside down since the time we started filming the show in 2019 to this year, things changed in a way that we never could have expected and it hasn’t been in a way that has been positive,” Warren explained.

“What’s happened is that the first couple of seasons we had some resistance, there was definite resistance, but the resistance was something that I think people still felt slightly uncomfortable expressing. Now, there’s no holds barred.

“There are people that will say vile, horrible, dreadful, violent things to us and to the queens and there’s no compunction about it.”

“We’re going into places now [that] at the same time there’s enormous amounts of love and enormous amounts of courage, and enormous amounts of gratitude for us coming, and, for us, we have gratitude learning about people who are living lives in sometimes very hostile places,” he added. “But it’s a different world, so we walked into that but we didn’t realize exactly how much it was going to be a theme for the season.

“It’s very sad, but this season is urgent. This is the season that if people haven’t discovered the show thus far, people need to discover the show, because it shows what can happen to America when small-minded, bigoted, people who want to expound hate, rather than even opening their minds to any sort of rationality, can take over times. That’s what the season is about.”

Ingram concurred, adding: “In the first two seasons you would see a little online, in these Facebook groups and chatter online, but what has seemed to have happened is that what was happening online is now actually happening [in real life], people are now doing it out in the open and being more aggressive.

“Particularly in Texas where even having a drag story hour ignites real tension within these towns, or these book bans, people are taking more action outside of being online, or even in our Utah episode where they tried to pull our permits.

“[They were] smiling gracefully as we walked through town, but behind the scenes [they] were trying to dismantle us. It was a tough pill to swallow.”

Addressing the Issues Head-On

Ingram reflected on how Bob, Eureka and Shangela would try to speak to and reason with anyone who was expressing hatred towards them, saying that the trio did “such a great job in showing respect and meeting the moment and people where they are versus being judgmental.”

“[We’re] doing our best to inspire people to stay strong to hold their ground, and to continue to inspire and show love, because the only way to squash hate is through love,” he said.

Showrunner and director LoGreco added that it felt important to face these challenges head-on to help educate people.

“I think what was tough about it is what was great about it,” LoGreco said. “I think that it’s always been the mission of the show to try to not only uplift and give visibility to LGBTQ people in small communities, but also to take on the bigger issues of how, at times, queer people are villainized, used as political lightning rods, misrepresented, to really understand a little bit more about the level of hostility that people deal with.

“And for whatever reason, I think we can make lots of educated guesses as to why, the political and cultural environment got heated enough in this last year and queer people were used and targeted in a way that I think is different and changed from seasons past.

“So what I think was a lot more subterranean in the first and second seasons, and we only saw through the personal stories of our participants this year, we saw kind of happening more openly in the communities.

“Not all of them, but in a lot of the communities where we shot episodes and, honestly, I think that’s kind of a blessing in disguise in terms of actually being able to directly address head-on these issues that have been […] referred to but we didn’t actually get to see openly and outwardly, and directly with our cameras.”

LoGreco added that while they dealt with “more resistance” and “open hostility” this season compared to others, it could be seen as “a positive thing.”

“Not because it’s great that that’s happening, of course it’s terrible that that’s happening, but because we were able to show it,” the director explained. “People felt emboldened enough to be open about their feelings, even when the cameras were rolling, or at least online enough that we could record the types of things that people were trying to put out into their communities.

“So, I think you got a much more tangible and direct sense of what LGBTQ folks in these communities are dealing with on a regular basis.”

Staying Positive in the Face of Adversity

As previously mentioned, while they faced some hate it was more often the case that the community would show up for the We’re Here team and bring positivity to their journey.

Ingram said: “This fear that we capture this season is so overpowered by love and I think we really hope, even if it’s just one person who was fearful of drag queens coming to town, when they watch the episode they actually see ‘wow, this is a community of people that are sharing their appreciation for and respect for each other. They’re sharing love for each other, they’re not spreading fear, there’s nothing to fear.’

“Drag performers across the country deal with this all the time and in this season, in particular, we wanted to show what a lot of drag performers are up against across the country in the small communities that are trying to bring a drag show, a drag brunch, or something in their community.”

The co-creator explained how even in his hometown in Tennessee there was a bar that had put on a drag show one night that was “met with a lot of resistance,” and the things they experienced making the show is “happening everywhere.”

“We’re lucky that we come in, we don’t overstay our welcome and we shine a little bit of light and love,” Ingram went on. “But we do leave behind this beautiful piece of film that is about love, and I’m hoping that it does change minds and hearts.”

Warren agreed, saying of the drag shows they put on: “Johnnie and I feel a personal sense of wonder at, ‘just look at the joy in these people’s lives that people have gathered together in the face of potential adversity and a constant being told: don’t do this, don’t dress like this,’ and then all of a sudden people come, and particularly in St. George, Utah where thousands of people showed up, it was a sense of triumph, a sense of just utter, utter joy.

“It felt as if you ever needed to feel what it’s like to be surrounded by love outside of, I don’t know, a familial situation where it’s a big gathering, that would be the place, everyone was in a state of utter happiness, it was beautiful to experience.”

Ingram added: “We come with power, we come with cameras, we come with confidence, we come with these artists that are at the top of their careers and the ability to connect with people.

“And [we] highlight a community that is sort of struggling with their own legislation, their local legislation, and how do they combat these loud vocal, hateful community leaders. And I think what we really saw, especially in the Utah episode, is that if you show up, you go to these meetings, you really can make a difference in your local community.

“You see now, more than ever, the importance of voting and hopefully electing people that don’t preach hate and actually are trying to make the community a more loving place. I think that Utah episode was such a wonderful episode to show what it really means to show up for the community.”

We’re Here premieres on HBO on Friday, November 25 at 10 p.m. ET.