Michelle Visage’s Drag Race would see trans women and bio queens bring it to the runway
Michelle Visage on the set of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. (BBC)
Michelle Visage has said that she would love to host her own version of Drag Race that would put bio queens and trans women front and centre.
When asked by the Guardian about past comments made by RuPaul about trans drag contestants, Visage said she would love to host an alternative version with bio queens and trans women.
“I would actually love to host my own version – with bio queens and trans women,” Visage said.
Visage also insisted that “everybody” is welcome to audition for RuPaul’s Drag Race, including bio queens and trans women. However, she said they tend not to get many bio queens auditioning.
Drag Race judge Michelle Visage said she has a ‘drag queen’ tattoo and said that is ‘what I identify as’.
The Drag Race judge said the transition is “greater from a rugged male to a drag queen, versus a female to a drag queen” but added: “That doesn’t exclude the art of bio-queendom.”
In the same interview, Visage suggested that she identifies herself as a bio queen, and showed the interviewer a tattoo she has on her thigh that reads “drag queen”.
“Because that’s who I am and that’s what I identify as,” she said.
I would actually love to host my own version – with bio queens and trans women.
While RuPaul’s Drag Race has been incredibly popular in the LGBT+ community since it debuted over a decade ago, it has also proven controversial for its host’s views towards trans women.
In a March 2018 interview with The Guardian, RuPaul said he would “probably not” allow a transgender drag queen to compete on the show, drawing a distinction between trans women who have undergone some form of medical transition and those who are yet to do so or choose not to.
RuPaul has come under fire for his comments on trans contestants.
“Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it’s not men doing it, because at its core it’s a social statement and a big f-you to male-dominated culture,” RuPaul said.
Drag Race featured it’s first openly trans contestant in 2017, when Peppermint came out on the show.
“Peppermint didn’t get breast implants until after she left our show; she was identifying as a woman, but she hadn’t really transitioned,” RuPaul said in 2018.
“You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body. It takes on a different thing; it changes the whole concept of what we’re doing. We’ve had some girls who’ve had some injections in the face and maybe a little bit in the butt here and there, but they haven’t transitioned,” he said.
In an interview last year with The Sunday Times, RuPaul insisted that his comments had been taken “so out of context”.
