Drag Race Contestants Are Calling Out RuPaul For His Controversial Comments On Trans Queens

RuPaul has apologised for his controversial comments about trans drag queens after a huge backlash from Drag Race fans and contestants.

Speaking to The Guardian, the influential drag queen said that he wouldn’t allow trans contestants who have “really transitioned” on to the show, citing season nine queen Peppermint as an example:

Peppermint didn’t get breast implants until after she left our show; she was identifying as a woman, but she hadn’t really transitioned… You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body. We’ve had some girls who’ve had some injections in the face and maybe a little bit in the butt here and there, but they haven’t transitioned.

His comments were immediately condemned by the wider LGBT community, who sought  to remind RuPaul that trans people and drag have always been linked – take for instance Marsha P Johnson, the trans drag queen who played a key role in the gay rights movement of the 1960s.

Also, as fans have pointed out, the argument that it would be unfair to allow contestants with female bodies on the show doesn’t stand up when you consider the countless queens who’ve had plastic surgery to make them look more feminine.

Imagine Drag Race without @JinkxMonsoon @Peppermint247 @GiaGunn @StacyLMatthews @KenyaMichaels @JigglyCaliente @Carmen_Carrera @officialsonique @MonicaBHillz. Trans and nonbinary folks are within the DNA of both RPDR and drag throughout history. Let's celebrate them.

— Ξvan Ross Katz (@evanrosskatz) March 4, 2018

Besides, there have already been trans contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race – Peppermint entered as a trans woman, while Monica Beverly Hillz came out during season five – and a significant number of queens have come out as trans or non-binary after their time on the show.

These queens, along with some of their fellow Drag Race contestants, have made it very clear that they don’t share RuPaul’s views:

Trans women were the first entertainers I ever saw in drag & have always been a big part of the industry. To now hear such words of segregation from an icon who has created a world wide community of unity, makes me sad. Is never been LGB so let’s not forget about the T!

— Gia Gunn (@GiaGunn) March 5, 2018

My drag was born in a community full of trans women, trans men, and gender non-conforming folks doing drag. That’s the real world of drag, like it or not. I thinks it’s fabulous and I will fight my entire life to protect and uplift it.

— Sasha Velour (@sasha_velour) March 5, 2018

The revolution is intersectional and so is drag

— Courtney Act (@courtneyact) March 5, 2018

My partner of almost three years is trans, and #bendelachrist help anyone who tries to tell him what he can and can’t do. Just sayin’.

— BenDeLaCreme (@bendelacreme) March 5, 2018

RuPaul apologised last night for his words, tweeting that he has never purposefully excluded trans contestants on the show:

Each morning I pray to aside aside everything I think I know, so I may have an open mind and a new experience. I understand and regret the hurt I have caused. The trans community are heroes of our shared LGBTQ movement. You are my teachers.

“In the ten years we’ve been casting Drag Race, the only thing we’ve ever screened for is charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. And that will never change.”

• rupaul
• rupaul's drag race
• trans issues