HBO has officially debuted the fourth season of We're Here, with a core group of drag queens venturing into small-town America to spread awareness and love of drag while also looking at how anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is affecting communities. Like the first three seasons, episodes can be emotional rollercoasters to the point of needing a box of tissues handy, but there was also a major change for the 2024 TV schedule: new hosts. When I spoke with three of them earlier this year, they shared their thoughts on what "We're Here" means to them.
The drag queens who host the fourth season of We're Here are Sasha Velour, Priyanka, Jaida Essence Hall, and Latrice Royale, and the first episode that aired this year showed what they bring to the series that sets it apart from the first three seasons. (The first three seasons were hosted by RuPaul's Drag Race queens: Bob the Drag Queen, Eureka O'Hara, and Shangela.) I spoke with several of the new HBO stars at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta about what the title of the show personally means to them. Jaida Essence Hall shared:
I feel like overall it's a declaration of the fact that queer people are existing in spaces, whether you want to believe it or not. We are here and we're not going anywhere. But I also think for as far as the hosts, and even in the production, all of us who assemble this great big team to make so much happen, I think it's just basically letting them know that we're here for you in whichever way we can be. We're here. You're not alone. We're also just like you and we just want to make sure that you feel comfortable in the spaces in which you occupy and maybe even leave them with a little bit of fire to inspire other people in their community too.
While the fourth season only just premiered on April 26, anybody who watched on HBO or streaming via Max subscription can surely understand why Jaida Essence Hall described it as "a declaration." It's too early in the season to see if the queens are able to leave a bit of fire behind after they spend some time in Murfreesboro, TN and Tulsa, OK, but the season will run for six episodes, just as the first three did. Sasha Velour shared thoughts on the We're Here title, saying:
To me, well, of course, it's part of the 'We're here, we're queer, get used to it' statements. The beginning of kind of the queer power movement in the '90s. That's the truth. In every community, in every place in the world, there are queer people just like us, and it is time to learn how to coexist as a part of the world, for the world to learn how to accept us and for us to learn how to talk to people who maybe don't see eye to eye with us.
The communities that the queens are interacting with are already raising the stakes, even after just one episode. Their visit to Murfreesboro came after the city cancelled Pride due to an anti-drag ban in Tennessee, and they'll risk arrest for their full drag attire in an upcoming episode. Latrice Royale shared a take on what the show's name means as well, saying:
For me, 'We're here' is a collective. It means as a race, as the human race, as people. We're all people. Can't we all just get along? Can't we just coexist? Can't we just be tolerant and empathetic [and] peaceful and live our best lives? [laughs] It takes too much... to be mad and angry all the time. So I don't do that. That's not my thing. I just want people to come together and We're Here is doing that.
Messages of tolerance and empathy have been part of We're Here from the start, and that clearly hasn't changed with four new hosts on board. If you missed the Season 4 premiere on April 26, check out a trailer for what's ahead in the rest of the show's return to HBO:
Be sure to tune in to HBO on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET for new episodes of We're Here Season 4, or stream on Max. New episodes will continue airing through the end of May, and you can find the first three seasons on the streamer as well.
