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RuPaul Addresses Controversial 'Drag Race' Casting Statement & Explains Why Drag Will Never Be Mainstream

RuPaul Addresses Controversial 'Drag Race' Casting Statement & Explains Why Drag Will Never Be Mainstream

RuPaul is on the cover of Vanity Fair‘s Holiday 2019 issue, out on newsstands on December 3.

Here’s what the RuPaul’s Drag Race superstar had to say…

On his past struggle with substance abuse, and focus on self-care: “It’s difficult for me to stay up past nine o’clock. My indulgence, honestly, is taking time with myself. I go hiking, around 6:30 in the morning. I meditate…I drank and smoked so much weed because I wanted my world view to change. The truth is a very powerful thing. The truth of what’s really going on. I wanted to shut that out. Once I stopped doing that, the work became how to process the truth. The truth of what this world is, the truth of what people are. And how far we have come in civilization. Which, by the way, is not very far. We are a very primitive people. And for people who are sweet, sensitive souls, it becomes kind of torture.”

On why drag will never be mainstream: “A superficial aspect of drag is mainstream. Like, the ‘Ooh, girl’ or ‘Hey girlfriend!’ or ‘Yaaas.’ That’s mainstream culture. But true drag really will never be mainstream. Because true drag has to do with seeing that this world is an illusion, and that everything that you say you are and everything it says that you are on your driver’s license, it’s all an illusion. Most people will never in their lives understand what that is. Because they don’t have the operating system to understand that duality.”

On his controversial statement that Drag Race would probably not cast trans women: “Yeah, I don’t want to talk about that. It’s a lose-lose situation. There’s not one thing I can say that will make people feel better about it. I know what I am. I come from a place of love. I’m not here to make people feel bad.”

For more from RuPaul, head to VanityFair.com.

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Credit: Annie Leibovitz; Photos: Vanity Fair
Posted to: RuPaul, RuPaul's Drag Race