For 14 seasons we’ve watched the Emmy Award-winning RuPaul‘s Drag Race showcase queens from such states as New York, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina—even Arkansas. But after 14 years and more than 200 contestants, there wasn’t a Connecticut-based drag performer among them. Until now.

For the 15th season, which began in January, the popular drag competition series—now on MTV —features not one, not two, but three artists who live in and perform around the state: Amethyst, Loosey LaDuca, and Robin Fierce. (One could say there are four Connecticut dragsters if you count Jax, who grew up in the state but lives and performs in New York.)

I talked with the main Nutmeg Trio in January during the early stages of the new season’s broadcast, which features 16 queens from around the country vying for the series’ biggest cash prize yet:  $200,000. “It became Connecticut versus the world,” laughs Robin Fierce. “But it was nice seeing familiar faces and faces that I get along with.”

Loosey, says she was walking her dog Rocko, a Yorkshire chihuahua, late last spring near his home in Ansonia, when his cell rang, indicating the call was from Los Angeles. “At first I thought, ‘OK, this is a telemarketer, but I picked up anyway and when I heard, ‘Hi, Loosey?’, my heart stopped. When they told me I was selected, my first reaction was, ‘No way!  I think you’re wrong. I think there’s more to the process.’ And they said, ‘Nope. You have been cast’.” I was standing right in front of my elementary school, so it was really a full-circle moment….CONTINUED