Baga Chipz calls out ‘bigotry’ after reportedly being turned away from a casino for being a ‘fella in make up’
Baga Chipz caught up with PinkNews from lockdown. (BBC)
Drag Race UK star Baga Chipz claims to have been turned away by casino bouncers who called her a “fella in makeup”.
Baga said she tried to enter the Genting Casino in Edinburgh but was turned away because of her appearance.
Bouncers allegedly told the West Midlands-born queen that she “wasn’t suitable” because of her “fancy dress”.
“Scotland/Edinburgh. I bloody love you. BUT @Genting_Casinos BOY JOVE,” she wrote in a series of now-deleted tweets.
“That’s called my identity. I was sober and would of spent a packet. Your loss. Not mine.”
Baga Chipz told not to ‘play the trans card’.
During the confrontation, a fellow casino-goer reportedly told Baga not to “play the trans card”.
“These people were so horrid and I only say that because I don’t want my LGBT+ family to experience this bigotry,” she continued.
“Let’s get one thing clear. Scotland is one of the greatest countries in the world. 99.99% of the time I’m eating Hagis doing the highland fling to the Crankie’s! I’m not hating! Just let sober PEOPLE inside wearing makeup!”
Genting Casino confirmed that Baga and her group had been refused entry to the casino at 3.20am on Saturday morning, January 11, but disputed her version of events.
“Our door policy does not operate on a discriminatory basis including sex, race and ethnic or social origin,” Genting told PinkNews.
“We do not discriminate against drag queens and we want to make absolutely clear that this played no part in the decision to refuse entry to the group in question in the early hours of Saturday morning as is apparent in our video and audio records.
“The decision made was based purely on a perception of how much individuals in the group had had to drink.”
The casino chain said that the comments referred to by Baga in her since-deleted tweets were not audible on its CCTV recordings.
“At no point were the comments that have been claimed on Twitter made by anyone present and we understand such tweets have now been deleted,” the statement continued.
“Given that we are a casino operating in a highly regulated industry, it is absolutely right and proper that door staff can use their discretion to deny entry in such circumstances.”
The Vivienne caught up in Boy George pronoun row.
Baga was in Edinburgh to perform alongside her fellow Drag Race UK contestant The Vivienne, who las week became embroiled in a row over pronouns.
The Vivienne was criticised after she appeared to support Boy George’s suggestion that preferred pronouns are a “modern form of attention seeking”.
After a follower replied: “Every venomous, deranged tweet I come across has a pronounced [sic] bio attached to it,” The Vivienne added: “This!”
She later clarified that she would ‘like everybody to respect and understand other people pronouns”, adding that she had “done nothing but fight for this for years”.
