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RuPaul Kinda Sorta Apologizes to the Trans Community: 'You Are My Teachers'
"Each morning I pray to set aside everything I THINK I know."
After stirring up a typhoon of controversy, RuPaul has expressed regret for his transphobic comments from a recent interview with The Guardian.
When asked if he'd allow transgender women who've begun gender-affirming transition surgeries to compete on RuPaul's Drag Race, he replied "probably not," then implied that previous trans competitors (specifically Peppermint) were men dressing up as women because they hadn't yet physically transitioned.
He doubled down on his comments just this morning, likening transitional surgeries to "performance enhancing drugs." Shocked Drag Race alum and trans rights activists expressed their discontent with Ru's opinions.
"Our bodies do not equate our identity," Monica Beverly Hillz, Season 5 alum and Drag Race's first transgender contestant, told INTO. "I've always been a woman, so what I've done to my body or that I hadn't started hormones while on the show doesn't take away my identity."
The uproar seems to have made the supermodel of the world reconsider his stance. "Each morning I pray to set aside everything I THINK I know, so I may have an open mind and a new experience," he tweeted this afternoon.
"I understand and regret the hurt I have caused. The trans community are heroes of our shared LGBTQ movement. You are my teachers."
Then, to contradict his own sentiments about gendered casting he made earlier today, he followed up with, "In the 10 years we’ve been casting Drag Race, the only thing we've ever screened for is charisma uniqueness nerve and talent. And that will never change."
Not exactly an apology, but it seems that's all we're gonna get from the 57-year-old.
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
Taylor Henderson is a PRIDE.com contributor. This proud Texas Bama studied Media Production/Studies and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he developed his passions for pop culture, writing, and videography. He's absolutely obsessed with Beyoncé, mangoes, and cheesy YA novels that allow him to vicariously experience the teen years he spent in the closet. He's also writing one!
