EntertainmentRuPaul’s Drag Race celebrates 15 years as a queer milestone in pop cultureCreated and presented by RuPaul Charles, the program was born as a drag queen competition and became one of the biggest phenomenons in pop culturetoday at 6:15 pm

15 years ago, RuPaul’s Drag Race arrived on North American television without knowing where to go. Freely inspired by America’s Next Top Modela reality show dedicated to the search for new faces in fashion, the latest, presented by the drag queen, actress, singer and supermodel RuPaul Charleswas looking for America’s next Drag Superstar among nine courageous artists, who didn’t even know what they were getting into when they agreed to participate in the program.

Far from what it has become today, the reality show I was not prepared for the strangeness presented by Tammie Brownwho was eliminated right at the beginning of the competition, and saw her style of Nina Flowersone drag queen rocker, who explored androgyny in her production, as a great differentiator. With the air of Miss Universe, Baby Zahara Benet she beat her competitors and became the first Drag Superstar on March 23, 2009, without having any idea of ​​the precedent she was creating at that time.

In the following years, RuPaul’s Drag Race moved away from the model of America’s Next Top Model and built its own identity, gaining traction from the fourth season, which placed the drag queens definitely on the map, and establishing itself with an excellent fifth year, responsible for bringing together some of the greatest talents that have ever passed through reality until today.

In 2019, when the program completed ten years, RuPaul’s Drag Race had already crowned around fifteen winners, including champions of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Starsa spin-off that gave a second chance to former participants in the dispute, and The Switch Drag Race It is Drag Race Thailandthe first international versions of the competition, held in Chile and Thailand, respectively.

In the previous year, however, when RuPaul’s Drag Race was already at its peak, Mama Ruas the presenter is affectionately called by fans of the program, she stated, in an interview with The Guardianwho didn’t see the point in people who weren’t cis men, like cis women or transgender people, doing drag and that they probably wouldn’t be part of the program’s future.

Criticized for her limited thinking, RuPaul He never brought up the subject again, but he made a point of redeeming himself and showing that a mother does not choose her children. In the following years, we saw Angele Anang becoming the first trans winner in the program’s history; It is Jinkx Monsoonwho identifies as a non-binary person, become the first contestant to be crowned twice and earn the title of Queen of Queens.

We also know the stories and talents of Kylie Sonique Lovewinner of the 6th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Starsand the first participant to reveal herself as trans on the program; in Peppermintthe first openly trans woman to enter the werkroom in Drag Race; in Gottmik, the first trans man in the history of reality television; in Victoria Sconethe first cis woman to compete on the show, and Pandora Nox, the first to win the competition; in Maddy Morphosis, the first heterosexual man to join the reality show; and many others.

Today, on the day the franchise turns 15, RuPaul’s Drag Race has already spread across the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Belgium, Spain, Mexico, Germany and Brazil, among other countries, introduced the talents of hundreds of drag queens to the entire world and crowned more than fifty of them as Drags Superstars.

In addition to celebrating the talent of a multitude of artists, the “drag domination” promoted by Drag Race allowed to disseminate and celebrate the diversity and culture of the LGBTQIAPN+ community, in addition to enabling the existence of an open and accessible space for discussions relevant to people queeras was the case of Hellena Maldittaparticipant of Drag Race Braziland a person living with HIV, and their statements about prevention methods and the provision of free treatment available in the country, for example.

Drag Race It may even have started as a competition to introduce the world to the talent of drag queens – which continues to do very well to this day, it’s worth saying -, and there are indeed those who still see the program as just a show of transformers for our entertainment, but the truth is that it has grown beyond the limitations of a reality show to become a separate community, based on the teachings of Mama Ru about self-love, self-confidence and mutual support.

If it weren’t for the ability to tell stories, whether the most difficult or the most beautiful, although always relatable, RuPaul’s Drag Race perhaps he would not have survived beyond the lack of preparation and that dark filter of his first season. But the reality show not only survived, it became one of the biggest landmarks queer in pop culture, to our happiness, so we can only celebrate and hope for many more years of Drag Race. As RuPaul always says, at the end of each episode: “Can I get an amen?” Amen!

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