Skip to main content
At least one promising contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race each season gets read for filth and dismissed after wearing a half-finished garment with sloppy hem lines and visible hot glue whiskers on the runway. If Portland performer Tomboy (or Kyle Letendre offstage) ever gets cast for the reality show, they will never commit that cardinal sin.
Tomboy has only lived in Portland since 2021, and performed in drag since 2023, but they’ve quickly established themselves as one of the Rose City’s legendary children. Their highly detailed, well-crafted costuming is one of Tomboy’s signature features along with their library of pop culture references and trompe l’oeil style of exaggeration (that’s French for playing with viewers’ perceptions, if you didn’t attend art school).
“It’s both a labor of love, and a cry for help,” Tomboy says.
At last Halloween’s queer dance party Betty, Tomboy wowed with their performance as a rotary telephone. Some of Tomboy’s other most memorable acts include performing as a 7-foot Sriracha sauce bottle and a pastel praying mantis. Their acts sometimes test even their own endurance limits: A recent performance as a giant plastic takeout bag included a remix of Katy Perry’s “Firework” in which the only lyrics heard are the opening line, “Do you ever feel like a plastic bag?” for three solid minutes. Tomboy accessorized this look with a 12-foot plastic bag boa.
“I like to take an idea and take it too far,” Tomboy says. “I have a soft spot for performing songs I don’t like.”
Tomboy’s club kid aesthetic is inspired by history’s greatest nightlife personalities, including Leigh Bowery, Grace Jones, Klaus Nomi and Sasha Velour (more mainstream queer male icons like David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Prince also get a shout-out).
But Tomboy’s secret weapon? Song. Before they moved to Portland, Letendre studied music but switched majors to graphic design while studying at Columbia College Chicago. By day, Letendre is a freelance graphic designer who will instruct courses at Portland State University this fall. They host a biweekly bingo night at Mayfly with their partner, Ry Bred, and can be found performing at revues and dance parties several times a month.
“With drag as with freelance, I feel like the motto is, ‘If you’ve got a check, I’ve got a talent,’ so I’ll go anywhere.”
Portland’s finest drag artists, according to Tomboy, are those who pursue their individuality while not losing sight of drag’s true goal: make people laugh, and make strangers feel less alone.
“I think what I love so much about Portland drag is that it really champions artistry, and so many different perspectives,” Tomboy says. “There’s the influence of ballroom, of club kids, of costumers and dressmakers, of high femme drag, of camp drag....It’s really a melting pot, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”
