Tamron Hall Defends Interview With Disqualified 'Drag Race' Contestant Sherry Pie
Tamron Hall is defending a controversial new interview.
The 50-year-old The Tamron Hall Show host interviewed disqualified RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant Sherry Pie (real name Joey Gugliemelli) on Tuesday (February 16).
“I’ve been a reporter for 30 years, and I’ve conducted and watched interviews with people who have done bad things. I’ve interviewed rapists, I’ve interviewed murderers … it’s not giving away your platform; it’s called an interview. And people who do bad things are interviewed,” she explained amid backlash.
Sherry Pie was disqualified from the VH1 competition after multiple men publicly accused him of posing as a casting director to coerce them into doing various things for a role in a show that did not exist, including encouraging steroid use and partaking in sexual acts on camera, among other allegations. He admitted to the allegations and apologized for the behavior.
“We believe the men who’ve gone on record about Sherry Pie. We believe in being fair, and we don’t give free passes– I don’t give free passes,” she went on to say.
“We’ve offered no opportunity to promote a book, a podcast, anything that could be seen as profiting.”
Among the protestors is Ben Shimkus, the first victim to come forward.
“Just so we are all clear on this, I spoke with producers at @TamronHallShow and told them that I and the 20 victims that I spoke to today DO NOT want them to air a segment with Sherry Pie. They’re going to air it despite the all of our requests,” he wrote on social media.
“I am a survivor of sexual abuse. I watched the @TamronHallShow because I don’t believe ignoring trauma makes it go away. I do believe in addressing it, however, and feel that AT LEAST some of the victims should have been given the same platform,” previous winner Yvie Oddly wrote.
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