Drag Race stars get political: 'People were like, you queens should stick to wigs and makeup'
Drag and activism have always gone hand in hand. In June 1969, Marsha P Johnson, a Black drag performer reputedly threw the first brick in the Stonewall uprising in New York City; the violence that followed inspired LGBTQ+ people the world over to stand up to oppression and discrimination. Now, 51 years later, drag is more visible than ever, due in no small part to the multiple Emmy award-winning reality series RuPaul’s Drag Race. The show has given a powerful platform to a new generation of drag, trans and non-binary performers. And, whereas early activists often had to contend with police batons, water cannon and prison cells, these queens have more freedom to speak their minds.
“Drag has always been a stronghold against shitty politicians,” says Alaska, in her trademark vocal fry. The ferociously witty winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 2 says her political role models include Act Up (Aids Coalition to Unleash Power), the movement that advocates to end Aids, and Elizabeth Taylor, one of the first Hollywood icons to speak up during the Aids crisis in the 1980s, who “wasn’t technically a drag queen, but she kind of was, right?”“Act Up had this badass element and ‘enough is enough’ attitude. It was during the Reagan presidency and they were, like: ‘This man doesn’t see us, we have a crisis, people are dying – we’re burying all our friends and the president won’t even acknowledge it.’ They had to take really drastic measures because it was the only way to get through,” she says.Alaska has also found an effective medium to get her point across. The bi-weekly podcast Race Chaser, which she co-hosts with fellow Drag Race contestant Willam, features Let’s Get Political, a segment in which the queens share crucial information about registering to vote and engaging with good causes, while making no secret of their personal sentiments. Alaska recently said, “An empty suit on a hanger in a closet would do less damage than the current person in the White House.” With 1.2 to 1.5m downloads a month, their platform is not to be sniffed at.
“People didn’t like it at first. They were like: ‘I don’t think you drag queens know anything about politics and you should just stick to talking about Drag Race and wigs and makeup.” But we persisted. Even though we’re talking about something we may not know about, there’s a lot of people who don’t know shit about politics but, right now, there’s so much injustice and so much lying, we have no choice but to be active and fight against it,” Alaska says. Her message to her US followers is, simply: vote.
With her teased blond beehive, love of leopard print and notorious potty mouth, Alaska is not the most obvious political role model – a paradox not lost on the leggy diva: “It’s sort of a topsy-turvy world where a drag queen named Alaska Thunderfuck is someone who’s a role model for young people, but sure, why not? I’m always trying to be a better person, a better citizen, a better drag queen. I guess it’s just a case of trying to do good and not do harm.”For Peppermint – actor, singer, Broadway performer and fan favourite from Drag Race season 9 – there were no public figures that represented her experience growing up. As a young Black trans woman, she was inspired by those who dared to stand for change and challenge social and gender norms.
“People who were being ostracised or fired from their jobs, or being made fun of on television – those are the trailblazers who paved the way for people like me,” says Peppermint, whose role models include the Minneapolis councilwoman Andrea Jenkins, the first Black openly transgender woman elected to public office in the US, and earlier on, gender non-conforming pioneers such as Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P Johnson and Stormé DeLarverie, who are credited with starting the modern queer rights movement.
Since the start of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, “sassy, but never shady” Peppermint has emerged as one of the most eloquent voices in the Black Trans Lives Matter movement, which aims to raise awareness of the violence directed at the Black trans community, and Black transgender women in particular. “It’s absolutely necessary for people to become outraged and mobilised when we see images of injustice. I’m so thankful that the Black Lives Matter movement began after the murder of Trayvon Martin and continued with George Floyd, but what we’re not seeing is the same sort of energy when it comes to the women who have been killed: Breonna Taylor, Sandra Bland and many others,” Peppermint says.
In 2019, at least 27 transgender people were murdered in the US, of whom the vast majority were Black women, according to Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group. Peppermint believes the lack of public indignation surrounding the murders of Black trans women is rooted in misogyny and transphobia – issues that have become glaringly apparent under the current Republican administration. More
