CHULA VISTA – You might think a jam-packed Pride season would cause stress for someone named Aang Xiety.The up-and-coming drag performer rode last month on a float in the Tijuana Pride Parade, produced shows on both sides of the border and will be co-hosting a Comic-Con-themed show in San Diego this month.
But the myriad events were a joyful reprieve from the 32-year-old entertainer’s cancer treatment.
The performances were the first time Aang took to the stage since having one-third of a lung, along with a fast-growing 11-inch tumor, removed in May. Breathing is still a challenge, but to Aang, the struggle is worth it to be back serving looks onstage.
“I know my family, they’re like … ‘Don’t use your energy.’ But only I know how much it makes me feel good,” Aang said.
Aang, whose real name is Eduardo but who did not wish to be fully identified because some of his family is not aware of his LGBTQ+ identity, uses all pronouns fluidly, but for clarity in this article, Aang suggested using only he/him/his. Preferring to perform as a drag creature, Aang is not tied to being a king or queen onstage.
A longtime fan of drag, Aang said it wasn’t until an initial bout with cancer – a malignant tumor in the left knee – that performing became important.
‘I had found myself’
Born in Mexico, Aang had been living in San Diego off and on for a little over 10 years when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma in 2021. A bone tumor in his knee had grown debilitatingly large, in part because of a delay in diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He returned to his small hometown in the Michoacan state of Mexico and spent the next year and half undergoing treatment. Ultimately, surgery that shortened his leg was necessary, along with chemotherapy.
The physical pain was brutal, Aang said, but not as bad as the emotional pain he suffered being with his non-affirming family, away from supportive friends and a welcoming life in San Diego.
“I had found myself. I had … tasted the freedom of being here,” he said. “Having to go back to a place where you kind of have to shrink again, it was so traumatic.”
Watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and other drag shows helped Aang cope – despite negative comments from his conservative religious family.
“I was shocked that even with what was going on, especially my mom, she just wouldn’t open up,” Aang recalled. “I’m pretty much dying, and you’re still like, ‘Oh, I don’t like that you watch those shows.’ … And I’m like, ‘Mother, I have no eyebrows.’ ”
A unique style
When Aang recovered, he had a newfound lease on life and was determined to find joy and spread it. Back in San Diego, a cosplay hobby turned into gender-bending drag performances. In 2023, the drag persona Aang Xiety emerged; the name is a nod to the titular protagonist in “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and a pun on an emotional state.
Onstage, Aang mesmerizes audiences, transforming into a sparkling fairy queen or a moss-bearded forest king. Performances range from politically challenging to delightfully corny.
San Diego drag king Hans E Barr, the persona of Rhyse Tamez, praised Aang’s unique form of drag.
Aang Xiety describes himself not as a drag queen or king, but as a drag creature. (Photo by Xing Photo Studio, courtesy Drag Forward LLC)“I really admire how Aang has, from the beginning, been unapologetically himself and showing up to the gigs with his own unique vision, coming from his own heart, and not trying to prescribe his performances to a RuPaul style, or even what the local scene has to offer,” Barr said. “(Drag) doesn’t have to be one size fits all. It really, truly can look like anything.”
Aang’s signature performance is prancing around as a reindeer with wings while lip-syncing “Colors of the Wind,” from his favorite Disney princess Pocahontas. Whether animal or human, Aang Xiety is always fae.
Growing up, Aang said he saw himself as a fairy. A fantasy world with imaginary friends was often intruded upon by a reality where kids were bullies and his mother feared decorative gnomes were of the devil.
His drag persona is an outward expression of that inner child, finally allowed to be free, Aang said.
“I’m this magical creature. I feel I’m paying back to my kid. I’m letting him play more because I think he would have liked to play a little more, and he wasn’t allowed to or he was maybe judged,” Aang said.
A full and fulfilling life
For the past two years, life has been full for Aang. He has been a popular entertainer in San Diego and Tijuana’s many drag shows, performing in both English and Spanish. He worked at Sunnyboy Biscuit Company in Hillcrest, spent hours volunteering and moved in with his boyfriend. He even auditioned for a role on “Drag Race México.”
Then in February, he found out the cancer had returned and metastasized in his lungs.
“When I thought, ‘I’m dying,’ it was also OK with me,” Aang said. “I’ve lived, I’ve met my idol, I’ve found love, I found good friends, I found drag.
“(But) I don’t think Aang is ready to go,” he added. “Aang is just starting. … I think Aang needs more time.”
Some dreams have been deferred. TV auditions were halted, and most of Aang’s performances were canceled.
His advocacy continued, though. In April, Aang performed at Lip Sync for a Life, a cancer benefit organized by Barr, where he spoke about cancer and his fear that every performance will be his last.
And for the first time, Aang didn’t hide his disabilities – using a cane to support his shorter leg and stopping to breathe with an oxygen inhaler in the middle of a number.
“I honestly thought (using the inhaler) was scripted because it was just such an empowering moment, but it wasn’t,” Barr said of his friend’s performance. “That was just genuinely what (he) needed to do.”
For a drag artist who trades in fantasy, it was an intrusion Aang never wanted. But taking the stage was too important.
“The crowd went wild for it, especially after already hearing his story,” Barr said. “It was very empowering and very impactful. I got chills and started to cry.”
Days later, doctors drained 6.5 liters of fluid from Aang’s lung and discovered the tumor had ballooned from 2 inches to 11 inches in two months.
Finding a purpose
As health complications from his stage 4 cancer pile up, Aang is still accepting, positive, resilient. He believes everything happens for a reason – not in the sense that even the worst situations were ordained, but in that he can find a purpose, even in the darkest times.
Hans E Barr, left, and Aang Xiety hug after cancer benefit show Lip Sync for a Life on April 12, 2025, at Number One Fifth Avenue. Days later, Aang had a tumor and nearly two gallons of fluid removed from his lung. (Photo by Verocity Productions, courtesy Drag Forward LLC)Amid these bleak circumstances, Aang has improved his relationship with his family. He said he wasn’t willing to conceal his true self the way he did the first time he sought their help during treatment.
“I wanted to tell them, ‘This is me,’ ” he said. “I was not willing to do that again. I felt like I was betraying myself, my own essence, by hiding it to (get) help because I had no other choice.”
Difficult conversations yielded better-than-expected outcomes. Aang told his family about his drag career and that someday, they would see him on TV. He introduced them to his partner and wore the clothes and makeup he loves around them.
“It feels great,” Aang said, adding that his family now knows who he is and what he’s doing. “I feel this was the purpose of this second time getting the cancer.”
Aang isn’t sure what the future holds. He is scheduled for surgery in August to remove a separate tumor from his left lung, and a new scan showed a pinprick of cancer cells have returned to his right lung.
But he intends to fight – and perform – for as long as he can.
“If it’s a journey, I’m down,” he said. “But I’m, like, let me have fun during it.”
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