Pattie Gonia

Hiking in Heels

Meet Pattie Gonia, a 31-year-old environmentalist drag queen from Nebraska who wants to build a more inclusive climate movement and reclaim the outdoors for everyone.

When she’s not serving up Mother-Nature vibes in her signature stiletto boots, Pattie is known as Wyn Wiley, an outdoors enthusiast and photographer who grew up performing Cats in his grandma’s cornfields. By middle school, Wyn’s relationship with the outdoors changed, as Boy Scout survival challenges and races to the peak forced him to turn down the volume on his outdoor musicals and the person he was longing to be.

Although Wyn’s sexuality was generally accepted by family and friends, it always felt conditional. When photos from his first drag performance got back to his local community, he was cancelled by clients and friends. His high-heeled boots were pushed to the back of his closet, where they remained until 2018, when he was preparing for a backpacking trip in Colorado and thought, 'What if I just pack these boots into this backpack?'

Pattie was born on a mountain summit during that hike. Wyn pulled on the boots and, strutting around the wilderness, reconnected to the joy of his early cornfield performances. He captured the moment with photos and videos, which he posted to Instagram when he got home. He woke up the next day to 11 million views.

After years of running to metropolitan environments for safety, Wyn knew his mission was to honour drag’s original roots of social justice and inspire the queer community to reclaim the outdoors.

Today Pattie has more than 520,000 followers on Instagram and uses her platform to challenge conventions of what a climate activist and outdoorsperson looks like. She has co-founded The Outdoorist Oath, a non-profit that connects marginalized groups, such as BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people, back to nature through hikes and outdoor gatherings and has created a job board to help queer people secure safe work in the outdoors industry and climate movement.

'Everyone has a pair of boots to put on, no matter what they are. And everyone has a beautiful life to live if they can be their truest selves.'