RuPaul has attempted to explained the difference between drag queens and trans people.

The world-famous drag artist was speaking on chat show The Real, ahead of the launch of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 in the US on March 7.

Though it has a huge gay following, the show is divisive among parts of the trans activist community who say that they are getting ‘confused’ with drag queens – while some would apparently rather ban drag altogether.



Speaking on The Real, RuPaul said: “Drag is really making fun of identity. We are shapeshifters. We’re like ‘okay, today I’m this, now I’m a cowboy, now I’m this’.

“Transgender people take identity very seriously – their identity is who they are.

“I come from the school of I will do whatever I want to do, at any time, and change – whatever!”

A number of previous contestants on the show have subsequently come out as trans – including model Carmen Carrera.

The drag competition reality show attracted a barrage of criticism criticism from trans activists in 2014, for a segment in which contestants were asked to guess from a photo whether someone was a ‘female or she-male’. The show opted to drop its ‘You’ve Got She-Mail’ catchphrase after the row.

RuPaul has also vented in the past about being banned from using the word “tranny” on the show due to complaints.

The drag star said: They’ve used their victimhood to create a situation… Don’t you dare tell me what I can do or say. It’s just words. You know what? Bitch, you need to get stronger.”



Show judge Michelle Visage later joked with RuPaul about replacing the word with ‘granny’.

She joked: “Did you call me granny girl? That is your new thing, because we can’t say it with a T anymore.”

“We’re just going to say it for everything that’s T-related. I checked the granny in my car…”



RuPaul said: “All the people that I gravitate towards – there’s a certain irreverence. There’s a certain mocking of everything that other people take so seriously.”

The iconic San Francisco bar Trannyshack decided to change its name to T-Shack in 2014, after complaints from transgender activists and people who found the name offensive.