Drag Race icon Trinity the Tuck lays down gauntlet to cis allies to fight for trans rights
Drag Race winner Trinity the Tuck has urged the queer community to speak up for their trans siblings (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Trinity the Tuck is calling on queer people and allies to take threats to trans people seriously.
Trinity spoke out as Republicans propose – and pass – a growing number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills, especially ones targeting the trans community.
Notably, in February, Tennessee passed a bill that effectively banned public drag shows. The broad language used in the bill suggests it could also be used to target trans people.
At the same time, Tennessee also passed a ban on doctors providing gender-affirming medical treatment such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, for transgender minors, and is currently looking at a bill that would define sex is biological and immutable.
Trinity, who hails from neighbouring Alabama, wrote on Twitter: “If you, as a member of the LGBT, or an ally aren’t bothered to the extreme by the rhetoric of the conservatives on eradicating not only the rights of trans people and drag artists, but also eradicating trans people altogether then we are not on the same page.
The outspoken queen, who is trans, continued: “There should be just as much outrage from these laws that are happening as you had during all of the abortion debate, and BLM!” she continued, referring to the 2022 overturning of Roe vs. Wade (the landmark 1973 ruling that protected women’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction) and the Black Lives Matter movement that followed George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in 2020.
“Trans people exist!” she continued. “They/we are a very vulnerable category of society [who] deserve not only our respect, but our acceptance and defence.
“If these laws continue, it will be a trickle-down effect that touches anyone who is not caucasian, [straight], Christian and conservative.”
The tweet, which is pinned to the top of Trinity’s Twitter profile, has been seen more than 58,000 times, according to Twitter’s “views” function, and garnered messages of support from allies and queer people in the comments.
“Speak tf up people. Vote. We need voices and for some reason our community is failing,” one wrote.
Others have pointed out that trans women – specifically Black trans women, such as Marsha P Johnson – are often found at the forefront of the fight for liberation, and that the rest of the community should now be showing up for them.
We all need to realize as queer people we would not have basic human rights if it weren’t for Trans women of color.
— Chandie💙💚🏳️🌈 (@ChandieM28) March 15, 2023
💯 Trinity you are so loved and so is this community. This hateful rhetoric is horrifying and SHOULD be disturbing to any who consider themselves an ally.
— teniah (@AnthroArtist_) March 15, 2023
Trinity competed on season nine of RuPaul’s Drag Race before becoming one-half of the show’s only double-crowning, with Monét X Change, in All Stars 4, and returning for the all-winners All Stars 7.
