An absolute legend in the industry, RuPaul has done more for drag culture than perhaps
any other person, alive or dead. But very few celebs enjoy such longevity without taking a
few hits here and there, and RuPaul is no exception. Here is the shady side of RuPaul.
In 2018, RuPaul was asked about how various genders and identities
fit in RuPaul's Drag Race, and if it should just be for men. He told The Guardian,
"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 'eff you' to male-dominated culture.
So for men to do it, it's really punk rock, because it's a real rejection of masculinity."
Does that leave space for transgender women,
like former contestant Peppermint, who came out on the show? RuPaul said,
"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."
According to Billboard, the host walked his comments back after some backlash, tweeting,
"The trans community are heroes of our shared LGBTQ movement. You are my teachers."
"Let the church say amen… amen!"
When RuPaul spoke on NPR's Fresh Air in early 2020, he was asked about his 60-acre ranch.
But he corrected the host, revealing it was actually sixty thousand acres.
He then explained that his lifestyle is much different from what most people picture. He said,
"Well, a modern ranch, 21st century ranch, is really land management. It is — you lease the
mineral rights to oil companies. And you sell water to oil companies. And then you
lease the grazing rights to different ranchers. So it's land management."
Almost immediately, people jumped to the conclusions that RuPaul was fracking on their
land, a controversial practice that uses enormous amounts of water and can have negative impacts on
the environment. One user even compared a map of RuPaul's property with the FracTracker map,
which seemed to confirm that it was being used for multiple fracking sites. As Earther reported:
"[There are] more than 35 active oil and gas wells [on] just 10,000 of [RuPaul's] acres."
Season seven's Pearl spilled even more behind-the-scenes tea
about RuPaul. In an interview with Hey Qween, Pearl said,
"We were filming a segment, just kind of chatting. Then the camera went down for a moment,
and I turned to RuPaul and said, 'Oh my god, I just wanna say thank you so much, like, it's such
an honor to be here, such a pleasure to meet you' [...] just giving [him] everything I ever wanted
to say. [He] turned to me, and [he] said, 'Nothing you say matters unless that camera is rolling.'"
Former queen The Vixen saw this side of the host as well. According to INTO, Vixen said,
"I'm not surprised. We were often told to 'save it for the camera.'
Ru almost never spoke to us without a camera rolling."
Queen Laganja Estranja thinks that RuPaul's diva attitude helps prepare
the racers for Hollywood life. Laganja told INTO,
"I think what happened to Pearl has happened to several of the other girls. In my eyes,
as insensitive as it may have been, it was [his] way of passing the knowledge [he] has fought to
learn down to the next generation. I myself hope that I am able to be more cognizant of others'
emotions and intentions as my success rises, but it's really hard to say what RuPaul feels."
According to The Advocate, RuPaul was noticeably quiet amid the killing of George Floyd in 2020.
Although the outlet couldn't contact RuPaul directly to hear his views on the movement,
they published an interview they had with him back in 2016, after a Black Lives Matter
protest stalled the Toronto Pride Parade and delayed RuPaul's speech. He said at the time,
"I support doing what makes you feel good about yourself,
feel that you're not powerless. But is that solution? I'm not sure.
I'm not sure if that's the ultimate — because if you really sort it through,
there is a solution. There is a solution. I'm not sure if those were the solutions."
In 2020, the movement really picked up steam.
"When all the marches and protests in New York City were happening,
I made sure I was out there protesting."
But RuPaul's Twitter and Instagram accounts mysteriously went down.
While fans initially thought the host had been hacked, Page Six reported
that RuPaul planned to "disengage" from social media. A source told the publication,
"The truth is things like Black Lives Matter [are] overwhelming
for someone like Ru. He gets backlash for appearing to not [...] support the
community and [he receives] a lot of negativity, so he disengages."
Throughout his career, RuPaul has found himself in troubling territory regarding public racism
a number of times. Maybe the first stroke of controversy came in 2002, when he defended
comedian Chuck Knipp for his "Shirley Q. Liquor" character. For years, Knipp had been donning
blackface and parading around black stereotypes in the name of comedy. According to Rolling Stone,
when he was protested against in New York, RuPaul called those rallying against him:
"A self-righteous lynch mob. [...] A bunch of barbarians with misguided rage."
RuPaul's Drag Race has its own history with blackface.
But it's been RuPaul's reaction to some of the controversies,
or lack thereof, that has garnered some of the attention. According to Xtra Magazine,
when The Vixen walked out the Season 10 reunion after venting her frustration because other racers
were, quote, "telling [her] how to react rather than telling them how to act," the host suggested,
"People who find themselves in situations similar to The
Vixen's need to be accountable for themselves."
This puts the responsibility on the victims of racial inequality
and mistreatment and not the other way around.
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