WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — It stars with a sharp jaw line. Then, thick black eyebrows.

However, it is not until Roxy Jonathan draws a 1920s-style mustache that the transformation into the masculine alter ego Johnny Gentleman takes shape.

“It’s the hardest part for me because if you have one side longer than the other, it’s going to look weird,” Gentleman laughed.

Gentleman is one of a small but growing number of drag kings, historically women who take the stage in men's clothes.

As gender becomes more fluid, so does the art of drag. 

“A lot of drag performers are no longer white cis men,” Gentleman said. “I think the evolution started when Peppermint from ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ came out as a transgender woman.”

On a recent warm evening in late May, Gentleman — who identifies as transgender and non-binary — was performing at an LGBTQ benefit. He is one of the few working kings in a world ruled by queens.

While drag queens have achieved mainstream success, in no small part thanks to the meteoric success of “RuPaul's Drag Race,” their king counterparts have been reigning in the shadows.

In a first for West Hollywood, this year’s Pride festivities will include a special all-drag king performance, starring Gentleman.

“When they told me they wanted drag kings at WeHo pride, I was in shock for about 10 minutes,” Gentleman said. “To be asked to perform made it valid that our fight was worth it.”

Billy Francesca, a longtime drag queen and a WeHo Pride organizer, said that these days drag is less about gender and more about performance.

"That box has been broken wide open,” he said. "You have these drag kings and Trans performers getting into drag the drag element of it and I love it. I think it’s brilliant.”

For Gentleman, it is a moment of validation — one he believes is long overdue.

“We just want an opportunity to be on the same stage as and be considered an equal person,” he said.