More contestants from RuPaul’s Drag Race are commenting on host RuPaul’s comments in the Guardian this weekend.
On Saturday, the Guardian published an interview with RuPaul in which the drag performer said he would “probably not” allow contestants who were physically transitioning to compete on Drag Race.
“You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body,” RuPaul said. “It takes on a different thing; it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing. 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.”
During the interview, he specifically spoke about Season 9 contestant Peppermint and spoke about her body, as well. He noted that she was allowed to compete because she had not yet gotten breast implants when she signed up for the show.
“She was identifying as a woman, but she hadn’t really transitioned,” Ru said.
Now, after Season 5 contestant Monica Beverly Hillz spoke to INTO about Ru’s comments and her own transition, Season 6 contestant Gia Gunn spoke about the controversy in the comments of Hillz’s Instagram, as captured by the RuPaul’s Drag Race subreddit.
“Makes me so sad that our own leader doesn’t even see us as valid competitors in a world that’s supposed to be ‘all inclusive,’ Gunn wrote. “I’ve felt this was the case for many years but now it’s presenting itself in the flesh and showing its true colors. Only #girlslikeus can do something about it!”
Gunn came out as transgender in an Instagram post on 2017’s Trans Day of Visibility.
“I thought I would dedicate today, in the spirit of being visible, to share my transition with all of you,” Gunn said. “I have been on hormone replacement therapy for about a year, and I identify as female. And I am indeed transgender.”
In her interview with INTO, Hillz said, “I’ve always been a woman, so what I’ve done to my body or that I hadn’t started hormones while on the show doesn’t take away my identity.”
She added, “Our bodies do not equate our identity.”
Photo credit: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
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