RuPaul’s Drag Race has always had a message of inclusion. That goes for all of its queer contestants, and — as a viral TikTok reminds us — its passionate viewers, not all of whom fit the stereotype you’d expect of a Drag Race fanatic.
The reminder comes courtesy of TikTok user Lauren Dunno (@littledunno), who took to the app to share how her grandmother was coping with her grandfather’s stay in the hospital. “My Grandpa had heart surgery yesterday,” Dunno wrote. “Grandma has been so stressed about it. But today she realized it was Friday and said, ‘Oh! A New Drag Race is on tonight! I needed this. 😌” That text accompanied a video of Dunno’s grandmother watching a recent episode from Season 17 of Drag Race.
“Thanks @RuPaul for being my Grandma’s comfort show❤️,” Dunno added in the video’s caption. The clip has since garnered more than 100,000 views.
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In a follow-up video, Dunno elaborated on her grandmother’s passion for Drag Race. After letting folks know that her grandpa was now back from the hospital after a three-day stay (“Grandma’s doing much better. All she really wanted was her husband home and okay, and he’s home and okay!” she explained), she said that her grandmother has watched Drag Race “religiously for years now.”
“She loves Drag Race. Loves it. She’s seen every variation. It’s her favorite show,” Dunno said. “In fact, anytime I hear the theme song or RuPaul laughing in general, I immediately am transported to my grandma’s living room.”
In a sidebar, she added that her grandmother’s favorite queens from the show include Jinkx Monsoon, Latrice Royale, and Thorgy Thor.
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That’s when Dunno took the chance to tell her viewers why she hopes her grandparents can be, in her words, “an example for people.”
“My grandparents are from Appalachia, a place that a lot of people, I feel like, associate with close-mindedness and racism and homophobia and things like that,” Dunno said. “And while all of that does exist everywhere, unfortunately, I just really hope that by sharing videos of my grandparents like this, that it helps people realize that it’s not everybody, and you just cannot judge a book by its cover.”
“My cousin is transgender, and when my grandma found out, for like a year I had to physically stop her from approaching anybody with a Pride flag pin to tell them she was so proud of them,” she continued. “My grandfather wrote a college essay in 1975 about the woman’s right to choose.”
“I just want people to realize that old Southern white people are not always bad people,” Dunno concluded. “In fact, there’s a lot of good ones.”
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