The entire world has been mourning the loss of The Vivienne, the winner of Season 1 of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and beloved contestant on All Stars 7. She tragically passed over the weekend, and folks across the internet have been posting tributes to the late drag superstar.
That includes her fellow Drag Race UK Season 1 queen Crystal, who drew attention to an important and under-discussed aspect of The Vivienne’s final days.
“Losing a friend so young is a real gut-punch – it doesn’t feel real,” Crystal wrote in an essay for Metro. “But the shock and sadness is heightened because I know her final days were spent on the receiving end of abuse and homophobia.”
Crystal went on to describe the online hate Vivienne received after appearing on the Christmas special of Blankety Blank, her final TV appearance, which aired on December 26. That homophobic backlash occurred in spite of the show having been hosted by a drag queen, Lily Savage, for years in the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
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“The pile-on Viv received points to a dangerous trend in recent years of the mask slipping, and the public feeling more emboldened to shame queer people simply for being themselves,” Crystal wrote. She compared it to the hatred faced by another Drag Race UK queen, Tayce, who won Strictly Come Dancing’s Christmas special this year. Like The Vivienne, Tayce faced online harassment, simply for being a visibly queer person on a public platform.
To be clear, Crystal isn’t drawing a connection between the harassment Vivienne faced and her death. “Her family have asked for privacy and I am not engaging in speculation,” Crystal wrote. “However, it makes me incredibly sad to know she was on the receiving end of these messages immediately before her death, and I need to address it.”
“I know firsthand that our society shames queer people to death. And that’s the reason that visibility is so important – it’s a preventative medicine for the next generation of queer people. Maybe seeing a drag artist on TV is pointless to you, but it could be huge for a young queer person who doesn’t yet feel pride in themselves,” Crystal went on. “Again, we don’t need to know the circumstances of The Vivienne’s death, to find it absolutely heartbreaking that she received so much hate leading up to it.”
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Crystal’s message hit home with fans of Drag Race, who discussed her essay on Reddit.
“The UK’s history of drag queens has really bypassed some of these complete idiots,” lamented one user. “I was so happy to see Tayce and Viv on my screen at Christmas, bringing some camp back. Then these pond dwellers come crawling out to troll.”
“Crystal is incredible; I’m so glad she wrote this,” commented another. “She writes and speaks so eloquently, and she is amazing for standing up to the bigots and trying to hold them accountable, even when society and the justice system are stacked against her. This whole situation is beyond tragic, and I’m just so upset by some of the horrible things being said.”
“I hate that she went through that, I hate that anyone goes through that,” wrote a third. “It’s never the loud mouthed bigots who f*cking disappear, it’s the ones who actually contribute love and light to the world.”
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