Le Gateau Chocolat

For Le Gateau Chocolat, the over-the-top performer currently entertaining crowds at La Soirée in Union Square, it was playing dress-up and a movie musical that helped him realize he was gay.

“I suppose I always knew. Accepting it was just very difficult growing up in Nigeria where homosexuality is still criminalized. There are the stereotypical, almost obligatory moments: watching Grease, playing dress up with my sister. I had many of those, which on reflection were signposts, but in West Africa, were merely moments of escape and unadulterated pleasure. I know I am and I continue to embrace it, so that one day, a mini Chocolat, somewhere in Nigeria doesn’t have to feel so isolated.”