From drug addiction to drag: Windsorite dramatically turns life around in 1 year

Sassy, sensual and confident, Benz Menova is one of Windsor, Ont.'s newest drag queens.

But behind the makeup, wigs and flashy clothing is a 21-year-old man named Liam Ingram who uses drag as an escape from reality.

"I can be anyone that I want to be at any time," Ingram said with a smile, adding the type of drag he likes to personify is "natural, glam, beauty woman" — better known as Fish in the drag world.

Before getting into drag, Liam was in a dark place — meeting strangers who introduced him to the hedonistic lifestyle of hard drugs and sex.

Diagnosed with HIV

After smoking and snorting crystal meth for months, Liam injected himself with a needle given to him by a stranger he met online.

He later found out he had contracted HIV.

"When I found out he was HIV positive, I thought it was a death sentence," said Lea Ingram, Liam's mother. She said she didn't know at the time that he could be treated.

She felt Liam's addiction got worse after he heard he has HIV.

"I think he just gave up. ... he didn't want to live," she said. "It made me feel like a failure. That I hadn't done my job right."

Liam said he reached his lowest point when he went to Toronto one weekend and sold his body for drugs.

"I know I was this goody-two-shoes kid in grade school saying, 'I will never touch weed,' ... to now being a full-on drug addict, needle user that's scavenging the streets and meeting up with random men online to get a quick fix or to feel good about myself."

Move out or seek help  

Liam's mother said: "My biggest fear was that I was going to find him in a back alley with a bullet in his head or beaten in a room with a needle in his arm, dead.

"The next morning, he came downstairs and I told him, 'Who are you? I don't even know who you are. Somewhere inside of there is my son and I want you to tell that son of mine that I refuse to bury him.'"

Lea gave her son an ultimatum — move out or seek help.

Liam said he was heartbroken when his mother questioned who he was.

"I crumbled inside, because my mom is the closest person to me," Liam said, adding he nearly lost her at the age of three from a car accident, but she fought to stay alive for him.

Liam agreed to go to rehab, and in August 2018 was admitted to Windsor's Brentwood Recovery Home for a three-month treatment program.

"If my mom chose to live for me, then I have to choose to live for my mother."

Just weeks after he was released from Brentwood, Liam attended his first live drag show featuring reality TV stars Pandora Boxx and Darienne Lake, and left the show starstruck.

Playing with makeup and wigs

"It was unreal to see these TV stars just step out on stage. It just feels like the television just put them right in front of your face," Liam said. "These drag queens look exactly how they do on TV."

After months of contemplating, he decided to try drag himself and began playing around with makeup. He said performing comes naturally to him, having attended Walkerville Centre for the Creative Arts.

Seven months later, Liam is now perfecting his look, developing his skills and performing as often as he can. He continues to take his anti-HIV medication, which has reduced his viral load to an undetectable level — meaning it's non-transmittable.

Lea says she's proud of her son and supports him wholeheartedly.

"When he's in drag, it's like he can go into another world. He can be someone totally different and when he comes back out, he feels fulfilled."

Although Liam calls himself a "baby drag," he said he would like to eventually audition for Canada's Drag Race, the reality television competition series about drag queens that's based on the American series RuPaul's Drag Race.

"I'd like to tour around the world and do this professionally."