Cameron Byrd, who performs as Nevae Love, and backup dancers Alisabeth Von Presley and Shawn Nelson rehearse “Steam Heat” on April 17 at a studio in Marion. Nevae Love and her crew of dancers are preparing to compete for the crown of Miss Gay USofA in Texas this May. Cameron will be performing two lip sync, choreographed numbers in Texas, including "Push Da Button" from The Color Purple and “Steam Heat” from the 1957 film The Pajama Game. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

Cameron Byrd, who performs as Navae Love, and back-up dancers Alisabeth Von Presley and Shawn Nelson rehearse “Steam Heat” on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, at a rehearsal studio in Marion, Iowa. Nevae Love and her crew of dancers are preparing to compete for the crown of Miss Gay USofA in Texas this May. Cameron will be performing two lip sync, choreographed numbers in Texas, including "Push Da Button" from The Color Purple and “Steam Heat” from the 1957 film The Pajama Game. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette) — Cameron Byrd, who performs as Nevae Love, and backup dancers Alisabeth Von Presley and Shawn Nelson rehearse “Steam Heat” on April 17 at a studio in Marion. Nevae Love and her crew of dancers are preparing to compete for the crown of Miss Gay USofA in Texas this May. Cameron will be performing two lip sync, choreographed numbers in Texas, including "Push Da Button" from The Color Purple and “Steam Heat” from the 1957 film The Pajama Game. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

Nevae Love, the 2024 title holder of Miss Gay Iowa USofA and the drag persona of Cedar Rapids female impersonator Cameron Byrd, advances to compete at the national level for the Miss Gay USofA crown in Dallas, Texas, on May 21, 2024. (Alisabeth Von Presley) — Nevae Love, the 2024 titleholder of Miss Gay Iowa USofA and the drag persona of Cedar Rapids female impersonator Cameron Byrd, advances to compete at the national level for the Miss Gay USofA crown in Dallas on May 21. (Alisabeth Von Presley)

CEDAR RAPIDS — Today, many aspiring young drag queens have their eyes set on RuPaul’s Drag Race — the massive franchise that managed to tear down the wall between a once niche LGBTQ art form and mainstream television.

Not Nevae Love. At least, not yet.

With wigs as big as Texas, an old Hollywood sense of glamour and vocal talent that makes lip syncing redundant, the Cedar Rapids female impersonator has her eyes set on the Miss Gay USofA crown — a drag pageant circuit eschewed by many younger drag performers.

Cedar Rapids performer Cameron Byrd, who has made a name for stealing the spotlight on local theater stages through roles like Lola in “Kinky Boots” and Marty in “Dream Girls,“ is only 36. But after nine years in drag, his drag persona in Nevae Love has earned wisdom beyond her years.

As jabs against “social media queens” or “look queens” — performers who don’t have much to offer besides their beauty — recur through the latest seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, pageantry has given Byrd a foundation that allows Nevae thrive at an age when some drag artists start to lose interest or “age out” of the system.

“It took a long time for me to become this person. So when I go to competitions, I try to think outside of that box — I don’t ever want to be put in that place again.”

Make no mistake: Nevae Love has gone to great lengths to dress to the nines, even for this competition’s registration table — a category judged only in the minds of her competitors.

“I want them to be nervous,” she said as she was fitted in a jacket that showed she meant business.

But she knows looks are only half the battle.

“Fifty percent of what we do as entertainers is in the aesthetic. Once they see you, then what? If you cannot entertain an audience without makeup and heels and costumes, then what are you doing?” Byrd told The Gazette. “We’re entertainers. We have to go past the look … and that includes being able to captivate somebody.”

Today, Byrd said performers, who often opt for “drag queen” or “drag performer” instead of the older term “female impersonator,” have come to expect jobs as soon as they walk into the room with makeup. Thanks to the rise of social media, some have gotten onto RuPaul’s Drag Race — commonly dubbed the Olympics of drag — with nary a performance on a real stage.

It’s a far cry from the days when Byrd was still trying to come up with Nevae’s name. For many beginners, drag queens endure the test of time through mentors who help them master the overwhelming elements of makeup, wigs and feminine clothes that fit broad-shouldered bodies. In Nevae’s early days, she was rejected by most of the big names in the Iowa scene.

“We’re entertainers. We have to go past the look … and that includes being able to captivate somebody.”

Byrd’s first time going out in full drag, before he had a fully-realized persona, was for a Rocky Horror Picture Show contest, dressed as Frank-N-Furter. Friends remember his makeup foundation melting off his face, because he hadn’t yet learned how to set it properly with powder.

But he won.

Later, when Nevae found a mentor in fellow Cedar Rapids performer India Love and became part of the Love drag family, she knew it would take work to make it to bigger stages.

“I came from a generation where you had to do open stages, you had to be seen before you could be paid to get seen,” Byrd said. “It upsets me when I go to a show and see a girl that puts all this time into a look, and then she gets on stage and it’s like watching paint dry.”

So when Nevae goes on stage, she makes a point to use her presence for more than just looks.

“Every time I go on stage I want people to say, ‘You look beautiful, but baby, you entertained us,’ ” Byrd said.

With nearly a decade under her rhinestone belt, Nevae would be qualified by modern drag standards to be a “mother” mentor to younger drag queens in the art form. But as a lifelong learner, she doesn’t feel called to be anything more than a sister.

“I’m not going to conform to what people think should work on me (as) a Black girl. That’s how you lose.”

With a sense of humility that has, ironically, grown with experience, Byrd said he pursued drag with the goal of being Miss Gay Iowa USofA. Now with that title claimed for the second year in a row, Nevae will return to Dallas, Texas, to make another attempt at the national crown starting May 21.

“Pageantry forces you to present the best you have,” Byrd said. “Pageantry is the foundation to drag the way that ballet is the foundation to dance.”

A win in the multiday competition against competitors from around the country would be Iowa’s first claim to the crown. Nevae Love is the first of the Love family to hold the Miss Gay Iowa USofA title in about 15 years.

The last Iowa titleholder, Ebony Love, was a founder of the drag sisterhood started in the late 1990s.

“Last year, he was focused so much on trying to make a mark. He looked up to some of these people, and I think that made him nervous in what he brought to Texas and how he executed it,” said Shawn Nelson, who performs as India Love in Eastern Iowa. “These are people you can look up to, but they are (Byrd’s) peers.”

Cameron Byrd, who performs as Nevae Love, will be performing two lip sync, choreographed numbers in Texas. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

Competitors in the drag pageant spend tens of thousands of dollars on costumes, outfits, makeup, dancers and more to snatch the USofA crown. Byrd, whose day job is in customer service for a Cedar Rapids telecommunications provider, is more limited with a hard-earned, four-digit budget.

“Talent always prevails over money, I say,” Nelson said.

Choreography by Alisabeth Von Presley

Cedar Rapids backup dancers Nelson and pop star Alisabeth Von Presley will be behind Nevae’s performances in Texas as she performs “Push Da Button” from “The Color Purple, and “Steam Heat” from the 1957 film “The Pajama Game.” From Von Presley’s studio in Marion, the trio have been rehearsing choreography for hours each week over the course of months.

“This is something (the judges) are never going to expect a Black girl to do. They’re going to expect me to do hip-hop or disco,” Love said. “I’m not going to conform to what people think should work on me (as) a Black girl. That’s how you lose.”

Choreographer Von Presley, the local pop singer whose recognition was catapulted by national TV appearances including “American Idol” and “The Voice,” has known Byrd since they met as classmates at Kirkwood Community College 20 years ago. With a more honed focus on personality over fluff, she said that Nevae Love has a better chance at a win this year.

Over time, she’s watched Nevae’s drag evolve. Makeup has become impeccable, footwork has become more feminine and knowledge has been absorbed by dozens of colleagues at the height of their drag careers.

“I think the thing that sets him apart is not so much a technical skill, but a star quality. Your eyes are drawn to him,” Von Presley said. “Truly, you do squint and believe that’s a woman on stage.”

But what’s more is that in impersonating what Byrd calls “the most beautiful thing on the planet,” Nevae helped him become more comfortable in his own skin. The drag persona, developed around the time the Waterloo native came out as gay, was a saving grace.

Nevae’s emergence was the tool that helped Byrd break free of the box he’d been forced into all his life as a Black boy in Waterloo.

“Growing up in a predominantly Black community, you cannot be who you want to be if you want to survive. So I lived in that box until I went to college,” Byrd said. “It took a long time for me to become this person. So when I go to competitions, I try to think outside of that box — I don’t ever want to be put in that place again.”

While other performers chase fame or fortune, Nevae was a liaison on the other side of the gender binary to help Byrd love himself.

“I’ve seen a lot of (drag performers) crumble because they fell in love with drag for the wrong reasons — for the nightlife, for the money,” Byrd said. “If you love something for the right reasons, it’ll force you to do it forever.”

That’s why, whether or not Love wins, Nevae is here to stay.