Flamy Grant ‘sways her hips’ back into San Diego

Christian music star to minister through local church

By Morgan M. Hurley

A former local drag queen has been named the “Musician in Residence” at University Christian Church, a popular and progressive located on Cleveland Avenue in Hillcrest. But let’s get some backstory.

Matthew Blake and their husband Christopher Dagneau were well known within the local LGBTQ community when they first shared last Spring that they would be moving east to North Carolina in September. While they had planned for a long goodbye with San Diego – the place where they met, fell in love and got married – they never expected the whirlwind that would blow them out the door on their way across the country.

Late last July and into early August, a record Blake had independently produced in Oct. 2022 called “Bible Belt Baby,” suddenly skyrocketed up the Christian Contemporary charts, thanks in part, to the anti-drag tweets directed at the album from an evangelical pastor with a large following on social media. The album and one of its songs even made it to number one on iTunes for that category and when other evangelicals joined in the fray to condemn it, it just made the album – and its solo musician – all that more popular.

You see, Blake has an alter ego, and her name is Flamy Grant (yes, in homage to Amy Grant). They have always been a singer, but they haven’t always been a drag queen. What started out as a fun and creative pastime during the pandemic has turned into a chart-topping experience with near immediate Instagram stardom and there is just no turning back.

On Flamy’s website, Blake describes her as “A shame-slaying, hip-swaying, singing-songwriting drag queen,” and that description barely scratches the surface.

“Growing up, I always wanted to be a Christian music star,” Blake said. “I had no idea it would look like this, but I’m really glad it’s happening.”

The songs on their “Bible Belt Baby” record all come from a place of processing the pain queer children experience while coming of age in an evangelical household.

Initially, Blake had no intention of marrying his drag persona with his Christian music therapy work.

“Flamy was created for fun – she was for me,” Blake said. “I had gone out in drag on Halloween 2019 and to a few house parties, but I never imagined that I would be doing more with it. I had a day job, there was church work I was doing on the side. I was in another band. I didn’t have time to do drag as much as it interested me. But the pandemic is when suddenly I did have time. I started exploring and experimenting with it. But it really was just something for myself. It felt like inner child work. I had gotten in trouble as a kid for getting into my mom’s clothes and pulling out her makeup. So I had those impulses from the very beginning and I just bottled them up and corked them.”

The whole experience exploring and perfecting their drag persona has also caused Blake to get in touch with their gender identity. 

“I was always real tense about gender expression,” Blake said. “Even after coming out and being comfortable with my sexual orientation and being gay, I just didn’t want to touch gender. It freaked me out too much. Drag is that powerful thing that just – if I feel this comfortable, if it makes me feel such relief in drag, something is going on there. And my goodness now it is so easy to just look back and see how much of my life was just performing masculinity for the sake of fitting in with a culture that I didn’t even like. There is so much about traditional masculine American culture that is not for me.”

Sharing their drag persona, their very personal music and their journey as a queer musician is part of what made University Christian Church want to reach out to Flamy.

“We are so thrilled to have Flamy Grant as our inaugural Musician in Residence,” said Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines, senior minister of University Christian Church shared with LGBTQ San Diego County News. “Affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person is a deeply sacred act.  Flamy’s willingness to integrate faith with queerness, drag, and authenticity is something we deeply admire at UCC.

“Welcoming LGBTQ+ people into the full life and leadership of the Church is something that all faith communities ought to be doing,” he continued. “With the Religious Right spewing so much misinformation about drag, we are excited about this opportunity to show how drag can be holy. We can’t wait to share in ministry and to dismantle harmful theology together!”

According to a press release about the arrangement, “University Christian Church was the first ‘open and affirming (LGBTQ+ welcoming)’ congregation in all of Southern California for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is proud to be partnering with Flamy Grant for this unique opportunity.”

“I was so excited for Flamy when UCC reached out because San Diego will always be our home,” said Blake’s husband Chris, who added he’s crossing his fingers that he can come along for Flamy’s July performance with UCC, the week prior to San Diego Pride.

“Flamy kicked off her tour [last] year at our church and we recognized an opportunity to support an incredibly talented drag artist while also confronting the anti-LGBTQIA+ culture that is inherent within the Christian music industry,” Rev. Lines continued. “Flamy Grant is an incredible musician and putting her front and center on Sunday morning demystifies drag for churches. Flamy will be writing progressive Christian music during this residency that will debut in our congregation, but that we hope to share with other progressive churches who want to get rid of the harmful theology that frequently comes along with Christian music.”

Having this new tether to San Diego via University Christian Church is multilayered in its impact. For one thing, it’s been a whirlwind since Flamy and Christoper made their big move, and it hasn’t been easy for Christopher, but he knows he’s watching his husband live his dream.

“There have definitely been some shared tears and loneliness but we’re adjusting,” Christopher said. “We have our dog to help get us outside and even though it’s much colder out here, it’s beautiful. Time heals all wounds and mine about leaving San Diego are starting to scab, and will eventually be scars. San Diego will always have a very special place in our hearts. It’s the place we met, fell in love, got married. [It will] always be the best beginning of our story.” 

In just the few short months since Blake left San Diego, so much has happened. They have toured nonstop for Bible Belt Baby, interviewed with some of the biggest news organizations in the country (Rolling Stone!), and knocked the top off a recent Kickstarter campaign to fund their next record.

Blake semi-confidently set a $30,000 goal for the 30-day “all or nothing” Kickstarter campaign and it much to their surprise, it was fully funded in just two days. By the time the campaign was done, they had reached $56,000, with 565 individual donors, which gives them the opportunity to make and market this record exactly the way they want. They are already putting together a team of professional musicians for the task and will record it in Nashville in March. Blake is still writing many of the songs.

“I really want to examine the value of church,” they said. “What does it bring to our lives, versus what does it require of us? How do those play out – and what is the value in engaging with and perpetuating that institution, the actual organized part of religion. I’ve been a part of — I can’t even count the number of churches I’ve been a part – of and I’ve never had an experience end well. I’ve never left a church and still felt food about it.”

Blake knows one thing for sure, the record and its accompanying tour will focus on queer spiritual community; and it is clear that everything they are doing is ministry in its own right. Just ask their 177,000 followers. 

It may seem conflicting to have these feelings about a church and agree to work with one, but UCC is definitely an exception to the churches Flamy has experienced.

“Flamy will be with us again on Easter weekend and the weekend before Pride,” Rev. Lines said. “By bringing Flamy in on the most important Sundays of the year, we want to make a statement about embracing all people as a reflection of God’s divine image, even while the Religious Right seeks to vilify both drag and queerness. Whenever Flamy comes to town, she will not only be with us during our Sunday service but will also lead community events on Saturdays as a way to provide enrichment for the whole San Diego community.”

To learn more about Flamy visit flamygrant.com or follow them on Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube and even Spotify, @FlamyGrant. To learn more about University Christian Church, visit ucc.org.

—Morgan M. Hurley is the editor-in-chief of this newspaper. You can reach her at [email protected]. 

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