'RuPaul's Drag Race'... is very little about boys who dress up in girls' clothing: it's very much about grit, integrity, heart, power of perseverance, and the power of love. It's also opening a dialogue up about the persecution and the marginalization of trans people, of queer people, of gender non-binary and gender fluid people.
We love trans women; all of us know that drag wouldn't be an art form without trans women. I know that, RuPaul knows that, everybody in the gay community knows that. Trans women have always been a part of and the face of drag. And I can guarantee trans women will always be a part of 'RuPaul's Drag Race.'
Growing up in the '80s in central New Jersey as a weird kid with a blue mohawk listening to the Sex Pistols and dressing really funky, I was bullied pretty badly. It was every single day in elementary school and kept going into middle school, too. I felt totally alone, without a single person there for me.
Listen, there's an expiration date for everything, but I mean, we're not burning out on 'Top Models,' are we? We're not burning out on making things in a 'Runway' room, are we? We're not getting enough 'Got Talent,' right? We'll never run out of talent. So, how could there be a 'Drag' burnout?
I agree with Ru that it'll never be mainstream, because mainstream means everybody knows it, everybody loves it, everybody accepts it. That's never gonna happen with drag, but it's definitely become more mainstreamed for people that never knew anything about it, being opened up to it as a form of art.
It's taken me a long, long time to figure out how to deal with negativity, because it used to really upset me. I was always that girl that, if I was performing in the club and there was one person not paying attention or not liking me, the whole club could be packed with people loving me, but I'd be obsessed with that one person.