Why do this? What does drag race mean to me and why is it so important? Rupaul’s Drag Race is my favorite show. There is a personal element to this, and a broader context in which I think its both fascinating and extremely important. When I was 20, I had only been out of the closet for a year when my roomate (and close friend) at the time asked me one evening if I wanted to watch Rupaul’s Drag Race. I remember knowing about drag race but always thinking “I’m not that gay.” My internalized homophobia was a toxic tenent in my new life as an openly out gay man. Thankfully, since my friend suggested watching the show first, I started watching the show and quickly, I became totally engrossed.

Drag Race is a show that embraces and celebrates effeminate gay men and now is broadening to the larger queer community, including our transgender family and hopefully will grow to include the rest of the community (I’m thinking of a show that’s an inclusive space for queer women too, maybe we can get a DRAG KING or BIO QUEEN on the show y’all???) For me it was the first time I ever got to see the type of queer person who society taught me to hate, being celebrated and elevated.

I grew up in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Its not just a small conservative city in the south, but also home to one of the largest military bases in North America. Military culture can be very conservative and perpetuates traditional, toxic ideals of masculinity. Drag Race was revolutionary to me. It showed me that I did not have to hate the parts of myself I had learned to destroy. It taught me how to use them as a source of strength, empowerment, and freedom.

The second really important thing about Drag Race also has to do with places like Fayetteville. I went to college in Seattle, Washington, and I lived in Capitol Hill, the “gayborhood” if you will of the city. In places like these, LGBTQ+ culture is accessible and around you. But if you’ve lived in a place like Fayetteville then you know what its like to live in a desert, with only small pockets of water around you that are never enough. Drag Race is changing that, making queer culture accessible anywhere. For many, it is all they have access to. And more than that, it is the foremost vehicle projecting queer visibility into the mainstream. Drag Race is all that exists for some and now is a major contributor defining mainstream representation of queer people. Through this optic, it is fascinating to watch the show. What do past seasons say about where we’ve been, and what does the show today say about where we are? I could go at length on this but hopefully you get the idea. Drag Race is important.