Wyn Wiley (born 1991 or 1992),[1] known professionally as Pattie Gonia, is a drag queen, environmental and LGBTQ+ activist, and community organizer.
Wiley is from Lincoln, Nebraska.[2][3]
Gonia graduated from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with a degree in advertising and public relations in 2014.[4] Wiley has worked as a creative director and professional photographer.[5][6][3]
Wiley's first experiment with drag was in early 2018, as the character "Ginger Snap".[7][2] In October 2018, Wiley created the character Pattie Gonia, producing short-form outdoors activism content on Instagram and TikTok, while in drag.[1][8] The first video as Pattie Gonia, posted on October 3, gained more than 100 million views.[6][9] The name Pattie Gonia is a pun on Patagonia, an American outdoor clothing company.[1][5] Pattie Gonia's activism focuses on environmental and LGBTQ+ issues, promoting acceptance of queer identities in the environmentalist and outdoors communities, and promoting awareness of climate change and its effects.[3][1] Euronews described this form of activism as "intersectional environmentalism".[10]
In addition to online content, Pattie Gonia organizes in-person hikes and events for LGBT+ and environmental causes.[11][12] They also developed a job board for queer outdoorists.[8]
In January 2022, Wiley co-founded "The Outdoorist Oath", a nonprofit working on diversity, equity, and inclusion and environmental causes in the outdoors community.[13][14][15] Pattie Gonia partnered with The North Face for their 2022 "Summer of Pride" series.[16][3] The series comprised four outdoor community-building events focused on local LGBTQ+ engagement and acceptance. [17][18]
In 2020, Pattie Gonia was named to the Out100, Out magazine's annual list of the "most impactful and influential LGBTQ+ people."[6][19] They were also nominated for the Shorty Awards in the LGBTQ+ category.[20]
In 2023, Time magazine included Pattie Gonia in their list of Next Generation Leaders.[21]
In December 2018, Wiley was interviewed by REI alongside the release of his first music video as Pattie Gonia.[22][23] In November 2019, Pattie Gonia was the subject of a REI documentary titled "Dear Mother Nature".[24][20][25] It was accompanied by a shorter, 3-minute spoken word poem video titled "Everything to Lose".[26][27] Pattie Gonia later produced a video with BBC News about the activist's work in March 2020.[28]
Pattie Gonia attracted media attention for attending the January 2019 Outdoor Retailer trade show in all-white drag.[2][29]
In October 2022, Pattie Gonia was the subject of media coverage for their Halloween costume, where they dressed as climate change.[30] They have previously designed other outfits in support of climate causes and awareness, such as a dress and wigs made of recycled trash, for their TikTok and Instagram content.[31][11][32]
In 2023, Pattie Gonia released "Won't Give Up" with famed cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, and Indigenous trans musician, Quinn Christopherson.[33] The music video was filmed in Kenai Fjords National Park as a tribute to Exit Glacier, a melting glacier in Alaska which was once a hundred feet tall.[34]
Pattie Gonia uses she/they pronouns when in drag and while out of drag Wyn Wiley uses he/they pronouns.[30] Wiley identifies as a gay male.[29] He lives in Oregon.[21]