Tajh Jordan is a
make-up artist based in
Portland, Oregon,[3] who performs in
drag as Flawless Shade. In 2016, Flawless Shade was the first drag competitor in the Stoli Key West Cocktail Classic, an annual bartending contest featuring 15 LGBT bartenders from North America, in which she placed third.[4] As of 2017–2018, at Portland's
Century Bar, Flawless Shade hosted a twice-weekly
bingo event "Flawless Bingo", which served as a fundraiser for organizations including
Cascade AIDS Project.[5][6]
Flawless Shade hosted drag shows at
CC Slaughters, karaoke at Capitol Bar, and trivia at
Victoria Bar as of 2019. She also hosted bingo at "Thursgays", a monthly
LGBT meetup at the arcade-game and pinball venue
Quarterworld.[7] She is one of six young queer influencers who featured in
Adidas's 2019
gay pride advertising campaign[8][9] and was named Miss Gay Oregon 2020,[10] one of few Black winners of that pageant title to date. During her reign, Flawless Shade felt discriminated against, resulting in her resignation and reinstatement. According to Andrew Jankowski of Portland Mercury, complaints from her and others prompted the International Sovereign Rose Court "to examine its own inclusivity efforts".[1]
In 2020, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Flawless Shade curated the
Portland Pride event "Support Your Queer Black Entertainers", a series of video testimonials featuring local Black queer performers that raised $2,000 for the featured entertainers.[10][11] She also participated in Portland Pride's event "Introvert: Digital Drag Show", which was described as a "night of
socially distant drag".[12] Flawless Shade was featured in The Library, a web series featuring queer Portlanders that was presented by
Logan Lynn and
Top Level Design for the
top-level domain name
.gay.[13] She represented Oregon in
GLAAD's video, which featured
drag queens from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., and sought to mobilize voters in the
2020 U.S. presidential election.[14][15] Flawless Shade hosted and performed at
Botanist House's drag show as of 2021.[16][17] She also co-hosted a
tea dance for Portland Pride and performed at Seattle's PrideFest in 2021.[18][19]
Jordan is Black and queer.[10] He lives in Portland and has described himself as a "Black gay genderfluid person who is a drag queen".[11] In 2017, Jordan called police and filmed a man who was harassing patrons at
Scandals, a gay bar in Portland.[20][21] As of 2021, Flawless Shade is a member of House of Shade.[19]