Tonight’s RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 reunion was as deeply chaotic as the last 13 weeks of hypercompetitive episodes. Bringing the cast together again for the first time since the season was filmed almost one year ago, the queens of Season 15 addressed everything from their shady fights over challenge roles to the best and worst looks of the season. (The prestigious Golden Boot award, given to the worst dressed queen, was awarded to Salina EsTitties for her gonzo street lamp look).
But among all of the cutting up and kiki’ing done by the queens and host RuPaul, there was an air of gravity that filled the room as well. “Each time a drag queen bats her false eyelashes, she’s making a political statement,” RuPaul said during the show. Since Drag Race began its run, laws like Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell have been repealed, and queer people have made incredible political strides with watershed supreme court decisions like Obergefell v. Hodges, which won same-sex marriage legalized throughout the country.
And yet, RuPaul’s words about drag being a political statement have never been more true than now.
“Right now, there is so much more at stake [than the battle for America’s Next Drag Superstar]... drag queens are on the front lines fighting for freedom,” RuPaul said, to open the reunion. Since Season 15 began airing in January, a slew of bills targeting queer people—many of which attempt to regulate drag performances—were either introduced or passed. The most publicized of these bills was enacted in Tennessee, which is home to lively drag scenes, particularly in Nashville, where many of the Season 15 queens work.
On March 20, Nashville hosted the Love Rising benefit concert to fund organizations that fight for queer rights within Tennessee. Season 15 contestant and Nashville resident Aura Mayari performed alongside activist and country music star Maren Morris at the benefit, and had to steady her voice when speaking about her experience.
“I am very thankful for what [Maren] has done for our community. She’s using her platform to voice out her opinion, and I really appreciate that,” Aura said. “[The climate in Nashville is] scary. I don’t feel safe just driving to work in drag. I’m worried about my safety at my own bar. It’s really disheartening and sad to see the progress that we have made as a community just being pulled back so easily.”
Soon after, Aura’s Season 15 sister Irene Dubois jumped in to elaborate. “I like it’s important to mention that a lot of these bills are secretly—or not-so-secretly—meant to target trans men and women who aren’t drag performers, who just want to live their lives,” Irene said. “We are not the only ones who these bills are targeting.”
Indeed, alongside Nashville’s “adult cabaret performance” (aka drag) ban, was a piece of separate legislation that prohibited transgender minors in Tennessee from receiving gender-affirming care like puberty blockers and hormones. As the only trans queen in this season’s remaining Top 4, Sasha Colby offered her insight as well.
“As a trans drag queen, I feel like the legislation right now is particularly zoned-in on people like me,” she said. “I feel nervous traveling. What if, when I go into the airport bathroom, someone [that is not a fan] recognizes me and wants to call the police because I’m in ‘their bathroom?’”
“Because we are out and proud, those small minorities are very loud so it’s just so important for all of us…to speak up and protest in whatever ways are possible,” fellow contestant Robin Fierce added.
Looking around the room—and perhaps referring to all of the younger queer people watching at home—Sasha Colby had one final thing to say. “Your stars are shining so bright that they are so nervous, they want to take away everything. It means we’re doing something right that they’re getting nervous.”
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