Drag

Lady Bunny points out obvious problem with debate over Drag Race’s first cis, straight man

Headshots of Lady Bunny and Maddy Morphosis

Lady Bunny (L) has slammed critics of Maddy Morphosis. (Getty Images/WOW)

Legendary drag queen Lady Bunny has waded into the fierce debate over RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s first straight, cisgender male contestant.

Bunny, the 59-year-old disco veteran and long-term friend of RuPaul, blasted NBC News for asking her about Maddy Morphosis at a time when LGBT+ rights are in the balance.

The Equality Act, a landmark piece of legislation that would stretch civil rights protections to include anti-LGBT+ discrimination, has wilted in the Senate since narrowly being passed in the House 10 months ago.

This, Lady Bunny said in a social media post Wednesday (15 December), is what NBC News should have asked her about. Not a cis man on Drag Race.

“I don’t care who or what type is cast on Drag Race,” the “Shame, Shame, Shame!” singer wrote in a Facebook post shared on Twitter.

“What I do think is odd is how a Drag Race casting is elevated to be the pinnacle of a gay rights battle.

“Many of those clamouring for ‘gay safe spaces’ and protecting the LGBTQ community from a straight drag queen on a reality show seems to forget that a bill languishes in the Senate which affects our actual safe spaces – jobs and home free from discrimination.”

Lady Bunny blasts ‘mentally lazy activists’ for targeting Maddy Morphosis

Indeed, the Equality Act stands little chance of drawing enough Republican support in the upper house to advance. If passed in its current form, it would explicitly ban discrimination against queer Americans in both public and private spaces.

But Bunny dragged NBC News for instead quizzing her on Morphosis, 27, who is set to appear on the upcoming 14th season.

“I find it interesting that NBC interviewed me not about any of the many causes which I’m passionate about, but about the casting of a show I don’t watch which hasn’t even started,” she tweeted.

Morphosis’ presence in the series has become a lightning rod for criticism among fans. Some fans have said that his casting captures the apparent foray of queer spaces by straight people.

“Which did you hear more about,” Lady Bunny questioned in her Facebook post, “the Equality Act or Maddy Morphosis?

Lady Bunny (Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)

“If you have more opinions about who’s cast on a reality show than the Equality Act, you’re the ‘activist’ doing the absolute least.”

She then slammed such so-called “activists” for taking on such “non-issues”. “It’s low-hanging fruit,” she added,” for the mentally lazy.”

Speaking to NBC, Lady Bunny shrugged off concerns voiced by some members of the LGBT+ community against Morphosis’ involvement in Drag Race.

Bunny sought to raise the alarm about the stalled Equality Act, urging queer folk to train their focus back on the proposals.

“We are so dumb-downed and so unaware of our own rights that gay communities will run around acting like this entertainment thing is the be-all and end-all of gay rights,” she said.

Among those defending Maddy Morphosis was Gottmik, the franchise’s first trans man to compete.

In an interview with Variety last week, the fan-favourite shared her thoughts about the criticism that has been directed at Morphosis since her announcement – something that Gottmik, she said, knows all too well.

“When I first got announced on the show, I was flooded with people who did not think I should be on the show or I shouldn’t be doing drag,” Gottmik said. “I feel like she’s going through the exact same thing.”

To Gottmik, drag is an “art form” and not something that should be gatekept from others.

“As long as she knows where drag came from and the references and just the background of the sacred form that drag truly is, she’s gonna be fine,” Gottmik added.

“And turn it, you know?”

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