Published on June 20, 2026 05:07 am
By all accounts, the bushtit is a small, gray and brown bird with a long tail and a short, stocky body. The color of its feathers is a bit boring, giving the gold ball-shaped bird a plain look. This isn’t the kind of bird you’d expect a gaudy-dressed drag queen to admire – but then again, the ephemera gender isn’t your average drag performer.
Ephemera Gender is the drag name of 29-year-old Fiona Skye, co-founder pull me out. The Urban Hiking Club in Portland, Oregon, blends quirky community with biology, and does so with campy, kitschy energy. Skye earned a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky in 2025; He wrote his thesis on bushtit.
“I always joke that I got a master’s degree in bushtits, so I have a degree in both bush and tits, and those are my drag credentials,” Skye tells me over the phone.
Skye and Everett Hosp, 27, who works as a drag king under the name Thespis D. Light, are especially qualified for these campy, inclusive hikes — they have decades of wildlife and environmental experience.
Dressed in completely glamorous clothes, the pair encourage high heels on the trails, but welcome all walks of life. Their goal isn’t to climb a mountain, he said, but to take people on accessible, leisurely walks through Portland’s natural areas, and teach them how to live in nature.
“We’re just some funny little trans drag performers who love to dress up and go out and teach people things,” Skye said. “While doing so, we are educating people about things they might not have otherwise thought about; ecology is international, and we are all on the same planet. We are building community in the process.”
Skye and Hosp met when they were both new drag performers in the Portland area. They bonded over their shared love of biology and Patty Gonyea.
“We had this idea of following in the footsteps of Patty Gonyea because we love her so much, and we were like, ‘Hey, let’s bring nature and education together,'” Skye said.
He started giving tours in March and has since gained thousands of followers on Instagram. Their social media feeds have been filled with overwhelming support, but the duo say they are most inspired by the diversity of non-traditional learners and participants they met during their journey: older people, younger generations, gay community members and allies, self-proclaimed non-travelers, those with advanced degrees and those without.
“It’s been great to see the number of people attracted to this place,” Hosp said, adding that part of his job is to make hiking safe for all people, especially those who might otherwise feel uncomfortable on a trail alone. “We encourage people to come as they wish. It doesn’t matter what you wear as long as you’re dressed appropriately for the weather.”
Hosp spent five years as a park ranger, focusing on interpretive work and community outreach. Before that, he was a wildlife rehabilitator in Florida and grew up hunting with his father in Connecticut.
Hosp said, “While out in the fields hunting with my father, I learned so much about ecology that you could never learn in a classroom. There are some things you just have to be out there and experience to understand, and that led to a lifelong love of wildlife, ecology, nature and science and a connection to the land.”
That deep connection to the natural world also shaped the duo’s understanding of identity and strangeness in nature.
“Because, oh boy, it’s gay out there. Period,” Hosp said. “What we’re doing is intrinsically a part of what’s going on in society. We’re students, but we’re also teachers. We’re people of this land, of this community. To pretend that nature and weirdness aren’t all part of the same thing and not educate about it would be our downfall.”
A sense of community and belonging outside, especially as a trans person, can save a person, Hosp and Skye said.
“Standing in the woods and saying, ‘I’m here. I’m trans. I’m a drag king, and I’m not going anywhere,’ feels amazing and crazy in a way that I never could have described to a 16-year-old who didn’t know being happy as myself was a possibility,” Hosp said.
Skye and Hosp say they hope their work will inspire everyone – especially young people – to follow their hearts and forge their own path.
“For those who are looking at us, I see you and I love you,” Skye said. “Anyone who is trans in the United States right now, but especially trans youth, there is a future for you, and we are fighting for you.”
