'Drag Race All Stars' cast weighs in on 'Don't Say Gay' bill: 'Trying to do everything in their power to limit us'
Amid the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation flooding state courts across the country, the queens from RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars Season 7 are offering their own perspectives.
In an appearance on The View, the cast spoke about their unique journeys into the art of drag as well as their advice for queer viewers who've turned to the show for comfort against the backdrop of Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill.
“We’re in a time where queer people have so much visibility on TV,” Monét X Change (Drag Race Season 10 winner) said. “The government, they’re trying to ban books, they’re trying to stop us from getting health care, they’re trying to control women’s bodies, they’re trying to do everything in their power to limit us. But every single one of us here, even you ladies here, we’re living proof that the country loves and embraces radical women and a bunch of rag tag queer people.”
Yvie Oddly (Drag Race Season 11 winner) added her own thoughts about the power of queer visibility in mainstream audiences.
“Walking in here this morning, I was trying to think of some of the first queer representation I saw [on television],” she explained, adding that “it was always in, like, queer-coded places like cartoon characters — but it couldn’t really be as out, as loud and as in your face, in daytime, here and there and everywhere, as it is today.”
“It’s just so magical,” she added. “I know that every thread I did get to see changed my life infinitely. Like, this is the best community service I ever signed up for.”
Raja Gemini (Drag Race Season 3 winner) also offered sound advice for LGBTQ people searching for representation in their own communities: “My advice is authenticity is everything. Be yourself,” she said.
Their advice is certainly warranted: This year alone, state lawmakers have proposed a record 238 bills that would limit the rights of LGBTQ Americans — with about half of them targeting transgender people.
That includes Texas, a state that went so far as to try and criminalize parents for providing gender affirming care to their transgender kids.
Florida's dubbed "Don't Say Gay" bill — properly titled the Parental Rights in Education bill — prohibits the teaching of or discussion of LGBTQ issues and topics for kids in kindergarten through third grade.
These bills have real impacts on families. Amber Briggle, the mother of a 14-year-old transgender son named Max, told Yahoo Life earlier this year they can also lead to severe consequences for queer youth.
"The way we debate and legislate trans lives out of existence can absolutely cause depression and suicidality," Briggle said at the time. "A common misperception," she adds, "is that trans kids are delusional and that we as parents are not helping our kids because they really need psychiatric care instead of affirmation. Nothing could be further from the truth."
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