This weekend, in a profile published by The Guardian, RuPaul — America’s best-known drag queen, whose show RuPaul’s Drag Race near-single handedly transformed a once-underground art form into a mainstream American obsession — was asked whether he would allow "biological" women or transgender women to compete on his show. What followed revealed the depth of RuPaul's exclusionary ideas about who and what constitutes “true” drag, at least in his eyes, sparking furor among many in the drag community over the past few days.

When first asked about allowing “bio queens” (cisgender female drag queens) to compete, he seemed firmly against it. “Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it’s not men doing it,” he said. When pressed to explain how this policy would translate to trans women, particularly with regard to Peppermint — the season nine runner-up and the show’s first openly trans contestant — RuPaul’s answer was not only disappointingly short-sighted, it was dangerous in its implications.

“Peppermint didn’t get breast implants until after she left our show,” he said. “She was identifying as a woman, but she hadn’t really transitioned.” In one fell swoop, RuPaul managed to alienate an entire community of transgender and non-binary drag queens, while also trivializing Peppermint’s transition, boiling it down to a surgical procedure. “You can identify as a woman and say you’re transitioning, but it changes once you start changing your body,” he continued. “It changes the whole concept of what we’re doing.”

Outrage quickly followed, with many poking holes in RuPaul's argument. “The primary tenet of drag is turning gender into a fart joke,” wrote Brooklyn-based drag queen Charlene Incarnate on Facebook, “and variation among performers’ bodies is what brings depth to that creed.” By proclaiming that only cisgender men are worthy of a seat at his table, RuPaul had “enforced the patriarchy's gender binary that shackles queer people.”

After responding to the backlash with a transphobic tweet that equated hormone replacement therapy to performance-enhancing drugs, RuPaul has finally seemed to take a second to consider his words. Yesterday evening, he tweeted that he had “regret [for] the hurt I have caused,” and alluded to the fact that he might be open to accepting trans contestants in the future.

In light of the controversy, them. reached out to four drag queens who don’t identify as cisgender men to hear their thoughts on his views. Some were offended but unsurprised. Many emphasized the hurt — financial, emotional, physical and otherwise — that his comments posed for the trans community more broadly and the non-binary drag community specifically. Across the board, one thing seemed to ring true: Drag, as practiced by working queens today, is an inclusive art form. If RuPaul decides to perpetuate an exclusionary attitude towards those performing it, it’s up to the rest of us, no matter how we identify, to foster an inclusive community that gives everyone a fair shot at success.