RuPaul on LGBT speech police: ‘Bitch you need to get stronger'

Big Hollywood

- Transgender activists and LGBT advocacy groups have turned against drag icon RuPaul for his use of words like “shemale” and “tranny” on his program RuPaul’s Drag Race. In an interview with Marc Maron, RuPaul dismissed the criticism as a product of “fringe people who are looking for storylines to strengthen their identity as victims.”

Appearing on Maron’s podcast WTF, RuPaul discussed extensively his childhood, history with performance, and decision to take up drag. Towards the end of the podcast, Maron brought up a controversy that has consumed Drag Race in the past month, as transgender activists and GLAAD have called for RuPaul to self-censor, leading to the cancelation of two segments on the program: a fan message segment titled “You’ve Got Shemail” and ”Female or Shemale,” in which contestants had to guess whether a person was a cisgender woman or a transgender woman.

The program has hosted transgender contestants, who released statements calling for increased awareness of hurtful language. RuPaul himself and the producers of the show released a statement in March, stating: ”When it comes to the movement of our trans sisters and trans brothers, we are newly sensitized and more committed than ever to help spread love, acceptance and understanding.”
RuPaul himself appears to have found the situation extremely frustrating, however. RuPaul told Maron he “loves” the word “tranny,” to which GLAAD and other groups have objected, and denounced censorship of words in the LGBT community: “If your idea of happiness has to do with someone else changing–what they say, what they do–you are in for a fucking hard-ass road.”
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