A Salute to Black Gay (and sometimes problematic) Icon Rupaul

Just call her “Mother” . . . unless you’re Trans.

Rupaul is perhaps as famous as she is polarizing. As one of the oldest performers, and probably the most famous drag queen in the world today, this towering Glamazon in drag iconography reached superstardom in the early 1990s as a stage performer, “singer,” and spokesperson for MAC Cosmetics.

She is truly the queen of securing the bag as she has tirelessly worked to expand her media empire over the past three decades. Her most famous pursuit by far is her VH1 series “Rupaul’s Drag Race” which is a competition where Rupaul encourages up-and-coming drag queens to endure a series of fashion and lip sync challenges (including the fan favorite “Snatch Game”) before naming a winner. Her platform and constituent spin-offs have catapulted numerous younger queens into superstardom including Bianca Del Rio, Alaska Thunderfuck, Shea Coulee (now on Season 5 of “Drag Race All Stars”), Bob the Drag Queen, Monet Exchange and Peppermint.

Although Mama Ru has been a seeming advocate of the queer community, she has also famously expressed anti-trans sentiment, specifically in reference to a question posed to her about the extent to which more trans girls should be included in the Drag Race Series. In a 2018 Guardian article, “Mama Ru” said “you can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body.”

To be clear, the irony here is simply outrageous that Ru, the great, great, great grandfather of an art form once upon a time relegated to the fringes of society, would now use her megaphone to tell the single most marginalized group in America that they do not have a place in her LGBTQIA+ continuum.

All due respect mama, but you got us all fucked up.

And although Ru has attempted to backpedal her own pink hate speech, we have barely, if at all, seen any trans representation on her platforms since her unfortunate transphobic commentary despite many of the former contestants now openly identifying as trans including Jinxx Monsoon, Peppermint and Monica Beverly Hillz.

Adding insult to injury, Ru has also frequently been called out for the lack of diversity amongst the cast and crew. Although the world is giving Ru her well-deserved flowers, it is difficult to celebrate her as a black queer icon. As recently as the 2019 Emmy Awards, Rupaul Charles missed an opportunity to talk about the much needed diversity in television. According to papermag.com,

Essence reporter Danielle Young gave Ru the space to address the visible lack of his show's behind-the-scenes diversity during a post-show press room.

Her question, which was painstakingly respectful, took stock of Drag Race's critical LGBTQ representation: "I'm curious about how you feel, especially as someone who represents so strongly for the LGBT+ community... Do you feel like it's important for that to be represented behind the scenes as well?"

You might say Ru didn't handle it very well. He started off by cutting into her question to make a cringy joke about people struggling to pronounce the acronym "LGBTQ"... which Young didn't do. "And the BLT community, I love myself from bacon, lettuce, tomato," he quipped.

At no point did Ru acknowledge that the Drag Race team doesn't seem to reflect the diversity the show champions... or that he was standing in front of a dozen white people. He continued: "But we're pretty diverse, there are lots of different types of people here. But is it important? Absolutely," finishing up by butchering a quote from The Color Purple to talk about his own struggle for success.

I’m sorry, but anybody I call mama needs to be able to quote the color purple correctly. And let’s not even get started about the Rupaul’s Drag Race Fandom and how they treat Black Queens vs. White Queens from the show, a reflection of a racist and racialized queer society in America that stings all the more because, hey, Ru is black . . . right?

To be fair, black Season 5 Contestant of “Drag Race All Stars” Shea Coulee said in a recent interview that she was struck by the amount of diversity behind the scenes. So maybe mama Ru is listening after all? She certainly made headlines when she named both Monet Exchange (a black queen) and Trinity the Tuck (a white queen) as twin winners of Season 4, sparking some debate as to whether Rupaul made the decision to name two queens because, to that point, no drag queen of color had yet won the spinoff show.

It makes you wonder if Ru is simply in it for the money? It is strange that Ru can’t do her own make-up, she can’t sew, she can’t really act, she certainly can’t sing . . . but she is the one who gets to ultimately judge who should ascend into drag superstardom? She doesn’t even pay the drag queens for showing up at her now iconic Dragcon events in New York and Los Angeles. What is interesting about the VH1 series is that lots of these queens are spending lots of money (read: 10s of thousands of dollars) on garments, veneers, and make-up, all for the chance to compete on this show when Ru once considered herself to be a grungy, “gender-fuck” queen that didn’t necessarily need the money required for all of the glitz and the glam. And although Rupaul is known as the ultimate glamazon, she should be better known as Rupaul Charles, the businessman.

I just want to stop here because Rupaul the businessman could at the very least give these girls some tips on how to spend and save their money, pay their taxes and build a small fortune. That’s her true talent . . . but it is the one I have never seen her share with a group of marginalized folks who could use that kind of help the most.

Maybe we should talk about her fracking . . . but perhaps that is out of the scope of this tribute to the elderly but still very relevant Rupaul Charles.

To be clear, this is absolutely a salute despite all the shade because “reading is fundamental, darling!”

And she has single-handedly brought drag into the main stream and changed what the world views as Amerikana. Hell - she is the only openly gay person featured in the African American History Museum and that is no small feat.

So, to you Rupaul Charles, I salute you . . . warts and all.

Now prance my queen . . . Prance!

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Have you checked out the latest episode of “The Family We Choose?” Well . . . what are you waiting on?

Yours always,

… The Trendy One