Thank you for this thoughtful piece (and for all of your work), Phaylen!

It doesn’t surprise me that Aja would speak up like this because she clearly knows drag history, impersonating Crystal LaBeija, who created the house system, in the snatch game on All Stars. Aja knows trans, GNC, and non-binary folks have always been a part of drag.

In my observation, it is mainly white cisgender gay men who have the most opposition to diversity of identity and expression within drag. To define drag as an art form for cis gay men is a white definition of drag, in my opinion, that is ignorant of, or erases, much of drag history (for example, the Harlem ballroom scene dating back to the 1920s).

It’s somewhat baffling to me that Ru would embrace such a whitewashed and exclusionary version of drag, but perhaps he’s choosing success, ratings, and respectability over using the platform afforded by the show to be truly progressive.