Didi Dawson

Didi Dawson spent most of her life in obscurity in her hometown in Quebec. Shy and unassuming, Didi was thrown for a loop when her older brother Eddie revealed that he was developing a drag act and was determined to make a name for himself in New York City as Aurora Borealis! Didi made every effort to support her brother's dreams, but still had trouble understanding him.

Didi Dawson was the second product of an on-again, off-again affair between Theodore Baldwin and the younger Edina Dawson. Didi grew up in Quebec, with her older brother Eddie and their mother Edina. During Didi's teenage years, Edina moved to New York, leaving her kids in the care of her sister Trina, while Edina secretly embarked on a marriage with Theodore, after his first wife had passed away. The product of that marriage was Thomas Baldwin, Eddie and Didi's half-brother they were never told about.

When Edina's marriage to Theodore failed, she returned to Canada but could never quite recapture the connection she lost with her first two children. Eddie's desire for the spotlight and a career as a drag performer was more than Edina could understand or accept at the time, and so Eddie moved to New York to pursue his dream. Didi however, became somewhat of a shrinking violet, avoiding attention and seeking refuge in a quiet, unassuming life working in a small coffee house in her hometown.

Eddie succeeded at making a name for himself as New York City drag queen, Aurora Borealis, but began experimenting with designer drugs and accidentally overdosed, forcing Edina to return to New York to visit her eldest son. Their reunion was rocky, but things got rockier, when by chance, Edina ran into Theodore and her other son Thomas, and Eddie finally learned his father was recent lottery jackpot winner Theodore Baldwin! Complicating things further, Eddie's lover Shawn Marks was a businessman who kept their gay romance a secret to protect his career, while publicly dating Jenna Baldwin, who was now revealed as Eddie's older half-sister!

Edina decided to stay in New York to repair the damage she caused by keeping Eddie and Didi apart from their secret relatives all their lives, and keeping Theodore and Thomas in the dark about the two children she had by Theodore during the years of their affair. When Eddie was invited to a gay wedding that was set to take place in Quebec, Eddie couldn't wait to return to his hometown and share the experience with Shawn (though he was attending the wedding as Jenna's date), and possibly get to see his sister again.

Eddie reunited with Didi at the coffeehouse where she worked, and quickly invited her to the wedding of Terrence Applewhite and Christian Avery Field. Didi attended Terrence and Christian’s wedding, and Christian and Terrence graciously embraced her. Thomas was excited to meet her. Didi seemed a bit overwhelmed to be surrounded by the boisterous and ultra-liberal crowd. Jenna learned Didi was her half-sister and felt her out on Didi’s future plans. Didi was comfortable in her life and it didn’t occur to her to change anything. Jenna was relieved, and feeling as though Didi isn’t a threat, played remorseful that they wouldn’t have more time to get to know each other. Didi ended up having a great time with such a diverse crowd of people and thought that Eddie found an amazing life in New York.

It wasn't long before Didi relocated to New York to get to know her new family better and break out of the shell that was her old life in Quebec. Eddie feared the pace of New York would be too much for Didi, but it seemed to excite her. Though her reunion with her mother was luke warm at best, Didi was thrilled to meet her biological father Theodore and found him to be a fascinating man that she hoped to get to know better.

Didi got a job (with Eddie's help) waiting tables at The Redeye, and after a rough patch adjusting to being faced with the secret life Edina had lived in New York with her "other" family, Didi came to forgive her mother for past mistakes so they could make a fresh start with their relationship. Things were going more smoothly, until Didi was caught in the crossfire of a chocolate mousse war between Jenna and her daughter Dana at Thanksgiving dinner. Seeing herself in the mirror with a streak of chocolate sprayed across her face, Didi fashioned it into a moustache and seemed transfixed by her reflection.

It seemed apparent that Didi was starting to realize how much more she wanted from her life after seeing how much life she missed out on before moving to New York. But one thing that puzzled Didi was how to build that new life. Didi felt something strange pressuring her, something she couldn't put her finger on. She started frequenting the Full Circle Lounge, which caters to a largely lesbian clientele, but things still didn't feel quite right and Didi still felt like an outcast. A short-cropped haircut was the first thing to help Didi feel a little better on her journey to find her true self.