Pattie Gonia

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]

Pattie Gonia uses she/they pronouns when in drag and while out of drag Wyn Wiley uses he/they pronouns.[29] Wiley identifies as a gay male.[28]

• Leah Thomas
• REI