KBIA News

Alphabet Soup

What radical courage does it take to love in the face of hate? Through portraiture and personal narratives highlighting joy, belonging, found family and meaningful romantic and platonic relationships, KBIA’s Alphabet Soup challenges the notion that Missouri’s LGBTQ+ community is a monolith.Tucked away within the amalgamation of letters that makes up the LGBTQ+ community and the complex identities each represents is joy: rebellious, resistant, radiant. If you have a story you would like to share, visit https://tinyurl.com/LGBTQJoy or contact news@kbia.org.Created by Bailey Stover.

David Hall: "Almost every time that I've been at the Capitol, I've had a crown on my head, representing... the drag community of Missouri."

KBIA | By Reporter & Photographer: Bailey Stover, Producer: Rebecca Smith, Photo Editor: Nick Sheaffer

Published June 20, 2025 at 2:00 PM CDT

David Hall sits on his couch on Monday, April 7, 2025, at his home in Columbia. “Even in Missouri there's certain areas that you still don't see that many queens of color. And especially in the bigger cities, how many of them do you see on cast in bigger bars that have, like, either a rotating cast or a main cast throughout weekends? I will give kudos to Kansas City because they've worked really hard on having that diversity within all of their cast, but still. Like, Columbia, one joke was like, ‘Kaycee can't work all the time.’ … ‘Kaycee can't perform in every show, so you can't really ding us on diversity.’ But I'm like, I still want to bring that representation,” Hall said. “Since [Nclusion Plus], one of the places I perform with, we go to smaller areas and perform. And I'm like, just to have one person look at me and say, ‘Oh yeah, I look like them. I can do that,’ makes me really happy. And it's like, ‘OK, what I'm doing, I'm on the right track for that.’”

David Hall is a bisexual man who performs as drag queen of color, Kaycee Adams. He spoke about the importance of showing up and speaking out for himself and his fellow LGBTQ+ community members.

Alphabet Soup shares LGBTQ+ Missourians’ stories through portraiture and personal narratives.

David Hall: Doing drag was just another art expression for me, and then I saw pageant queens, and I was like, “Oh, I don't think I'm gonna do that” because I'm an extremely competitive person, and I have talked with Trent with this so many times, like, I just remember me driving around and saying, “If I go compete, I wanna win.”

And hopped into pageantry– lost three times in a row, like, I lost the first one. I was like, “Okay, fine, I'll do one that's like a month later.” Did that one – lost that one? I was like, “Oh, it's fine. I was like, I wanna win. so let me hop back into another one.” Lost that one – even worse.

It's like from August to January of me just like pushing myself, losing, pushing myself, losing, pushing myself, losing.

David Hall’s Miss Gay City of Columbia America crown and the plaque he received upon winning in 2023 sit atop a bookshelf on Monday, April 7, 2025, at his home in Columbia. Hall performs as drag queen Kaycee Adams. “I’ve been crowned five different times, and City of Columbia was the one that it’s just felt the most welcoming out of them, and just the most, ‘You did it. You’re a part of this legacy and community that’s really important to the Columbia performers,’” Hall said. “Winning that title was a very monumental thing for me. It came with a lot of ups and a lot of downs. That’s when I had to go speak at the capitol against the drag bans. I was Miss Gay City of Columbia [America], and I was only like two months into my reign. So I was like, ‘OK, my reign took a different turn than I expected.’ But it’s been a very fundamental moment of when this crown was pinned on my head, every time I put that crown on representing the city — it’s just meant a lot for me, again, being the representation I didn’t get to see growing up. So I sit there, and I hold onto it. She’s been through some things, but I still love it.”

On my fourth try, I qualified, and I won my first title, and I was like, “Well, I like this. I like winning.”

Being able to hold – have a crown on my head while I've had to talk against drag bans because – especially in Columbia, back in ‘23 I was Miss Gay City of Columbia, America, and that's when we had the diversity breakfast that then caused the state outrage moving up to national.

Then, within that week of it being, like, an emergency hearing on drag bans in Missouri,

I was like, I either can hide, I can sit there and continue to go through Twitter and read the horrible comments that people are saying about me, or I can go up and fight against it.

And I wore the exact same thing I wore at the breakfast to the Capitol. Waited almost 10 hours before I got to speak. I think I got there at 3, and I didn't speak until 1:30 in the morning.

But I was like, someone has to be a voice, and I'm willing to be that person, to be that voice for the community.

Almost every time that I've been at the Capitol, I've had a crown on my head and representing – not only just like city of Columbia or Kansas City – I've represented the drag community of Missouri.

It's been an honor to be able to be that voice and to continue doing drag. It's like, I still want to be that voice for people and be like, “Hey, look at her. She's gorgeous, she's talented. She also knows how to talk and knows how to call out bullshit when she sees it.”

I strive to bring diversity, equity and inclusion in everything that I do, which, even right now, just those words are trigger words to a certain side of politics.

And I talked with my mom about it growing up, and she said, “Well, if you don't see the representation, be the representation.”

And being able to do that just in drag, out of drag – to be in positions that are traditionally held by white people, even straight people. Just to be like, “Nope, let me change the game” makes me happy with where I'm going.

A potted plant, crown, plaque and Deborah Willis’ “Black: A Celebration of a Culture” sit atop David Hall’s bookshelf on Monday, April 7, 2025, at his home in Columbia. “I’ve been able to delve into more of the queer community by doing drag. I started doing drag in 2020,” Hall said. “It took me a bit, but now I’ve been able to do a lot under that artistry and queer visibility.”