quadruple threat

These ‘Drag Race’ queens went out for a competition and came back with a whole new community

 

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This profile is part of Queerty’s 2022 Out For Good series, recognizing public figures who’ve had the courage to come out and make a difference in the past year, in celebration of National Coming Out Day on October 11.

Drag Names: Bosco, 29

Jasmine Kennedie, 23

Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté, 30

Willow Pill, 27

Bio: This quartet of über-talented drag performers came to know one another during the filming of season 14 of Rupaul’s Drag Race. Hailing from all different parts of the U.S. — Seattle, New York, L.A., and Denver, respectively — they would wind up bonding over their shared exploration of gender identity. With these four trans girls and resident doll godmother Kerri Colby, season 14 found itself with the most trans contestants ever in a single season of Drag Race, and became the first with an all-trans winner/Miss Congeniality duo.

 

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Coming out(s): The Tran-tastic Four publicly spoke on their gender identities one after another as season 14 aired in early 2022.

Fans and queens alike have joked that fellow contestant Kerri Colby was at the heart of this series of gender epiphanies, earning her the moniker of Tranos (a.k.a. trans Thanos) among the fanbase. Colby seemingly didn’t disagree, arriving at the season finale decked out with a bejeweled infinity gauntlet and threatening to trans any gender in her path in a snap.

 

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Kornbread was the first of the quartet to publicly come out, though without much of a big to-do. She made her identity known before the season started airing and began to go by “Demoria Elise” outside of drag. She told Entertainment Weekly that she’d planned on coming out on the show, during the “What would you say to young ____?” portion of the semi-final episode. Unfortunately, an ankle injury sent her home before her time (not before getting the first challenge win of the season, though!).

“I wanted to get through Drag Race without having [my transness] be any part of what was happening to me. I wanted to go there and show my style of drag, because my style of drag is not necessarily what I want to present in my transness and in my life,” Kornbread explained. “When I was talking to that picture, I’d be like, ‘This is my moment to express to people that drag is what you do, it’s not who you are.'”

Jasmine Kennedie, on the other hand, got to live the full prime-time coming out fantasy. The queens ended up discussing gender identity during a backstage Untucked episode, a discussion that Kennedie wasn’t initially going to be a part of.

However, hearing the other girls talk so openly, the queen was moved to tears as she opened up to the world about her womanhood. The height of the emotion came from it being the first time she had ever said the words “I am trans,” even to herself.

As with plenty of the girls, she credits Colby for helping her come to her truth.

“I care a lot about what people think about me, and she made me realize that I don’t have to live my life to please people,” Kennedie told EW. “She gave me the confidence to talk about it openly on TV. If it wasn’t for Kerri, I probably wouldn’t have come out to this day.”

In that same Untucked discussion on gender, Bosco openly discussed being nonbinary. However, it turns out there was a bit more “she” to that “they” than the queen let on.

Bosco took to social media to update the world on her journey after getting home from the show.

“I’m by default a very private person, but it would feel silly not to talk about this while I have this platform,” she wrote. “After filming wrapped this summer, I began focusing on figuring out what medical transitioning would look like for me.”

She shared her trepidation with the process, writing, “I was also just flat out terrified of how I’d be treated. I still am,” before adding that she’s “surrounded by love and support.”

“I’m not quite where I want to be yet, but I’m starting to see her peak through more and more.”

 

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Rounding out the sisterhood was soon-to-be season winner, Willow Pill. Like her drag sister and fellow Drag Race winner Yvie Oddly, Willow suffers from a chronic illness, which she explained kept her from transitioning for some time.

“During quarantine, I started to explore my feelings about my illness and unpacked a lot of medical PTSD and self-hatred,” she wrote. “But only in the last year have I really started to realize that I’m not happy with my gender identity either. Much of that is due to being on Drag Race and feeling euphoria being Willow for the first time since quarantine and being around a bunch of queer and trans friends on set.”

She went on to explain that due to her illness, the road to her transition would be bumpier than most, but that she’d taken her first steps.

“I know this experience isn’t linear. I’m starting to finally feel bits of happiness with my face and body, and that’s a start.”

Hear the girls discuss trans joy in the drag-est, doll-est panel of all time:

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