Gia Gunn, the recently dismissed resident villain of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 4, claims that while filming the current season she confronted the show’s host, RuPaul, about his initial refusal to allow trans performers to compete. But Gunn says their discussion left her feeling dispirited and it was apparently left on the cutting room floor.
Perhaps we’ll get to hear about it in a reunion episode?
So let’s rewind, real quick: In March 2018, RuPaul told The Guardian that she wouldn’t allow a fully transitioned transgender woman to appear on her show, later comparing gender reassignment surgery to “performance enhancing drugs” in a tweet.
RuPaul’s comments were met with widespread condemnation amongst fans, trans activists and former contestants, compelling her to Ru-pologize afterwards, stating:
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“I understand and regret the hurt I have caused. The trans community are heroes of our shared LGBTQ movement. You are my teachers…. In the 10 years we’ve been casting Drag Race, the only thing we’ve ever screened for is charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent. And that will never change.”
Which brings us to Gunn’s recent comments. Gunn starred in three episodes of All Stars 4, entering the show as an openly trans woman.
During her brief time there, Gunn stirred the pot to agitate her fellow queens and later claimed that her antagonism was to create TV drama and deal with her insecurities around being a trans drag performer. After Gunn’s offensively stereotyped and whorish impersonation of rapper Cardi B’s nail stylist Jenny Bui, she deservingly got the boot.
Related: Who Should Win RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 4?
Then, on the Race Chaser podcast, Gunn told Drag Race veterans Alaska and Willam, “I had a hard time on the show because I did exchange words with [RuPaul]….”
Gunn says she felt like she was cast to “basically show the world that this show does ‘support’ trans and that [RuPaul] does see trans queens as drag queens.”
This is an interesting claim because Peppermint, a finalist from Drag Race season 9, was openly trans before appearing on the show too. While Peppermint hadn’t had top surgery during her participation, it’s unclear whether Gunn had any trans surgical procedures before appearing on the show either. But we digress.
Gunn says she spoke with RuPaul on camera about his previous position on trans queens, but, “Of course it wasn’t aired,” Gunn told the podcast, “which was a little disappointing. I very well knew that none of that was going to air because the show is not about making her look anything but great.”
“So for me to get there and for us to be on episode three, never have eye contact with her, never have any sort of acknowledgement of… ‘your journey has been so beautiful to watch,’ or anything of that sort, I just felt really hurt,” Gunn said.
She says Ru’s reaction made her feel “completely disregarded,” unacknowledged and unwanted, hurting her feelings and causing her to have a “really big breakdown.” She later questioned her participation and even considered walking off of the show.
“I thought she would have been a lot more welcoming,” Gun said. “If we were going to bring somebody on the show to clean up somebody’s mess, obviously that fell on me, right? … What was the whole point of me coming here if she wasn’t going to walk the walk and talk the talk?”
Gunn is only the most recent contestant to claim that her on-set interaction with RuPaul left her feeling deflated.
In August 2018, Pearl, a competitor from season 7, said that RuPaul told her, “Nothing you say matters unless that camera is rolling,” after she praised RuPaul off-camera, leaving her feeling “disrespected.”
Pearl concluded that she likely won’t ever be invited to participate in any upcoming All Stars events for publicly mentioning the interaction. Gunn may well face the same fate.
Polaro
Gia is a horrible person and it is cheating. Ru should not have relented to the trans mafia.
PoetDaddy
Well, I certainly agree with you that Gia Gunn is (or at least seemed like) a hideous human being on Drag Race Allstars, trans or no trans. As for the rest, I think you’re being unnecessarily harsh. Clearly we’re all on a learning curve here and we’ve got to figure out what’s equitable for everyone.
GentlemanCaller
I agree that Gia appears to be a terrible person. And I still haven’t been convinced that a trans person who is physically female (i.e., fully or partially anatomically transitioned) belongs in an entertainment form that is, by definition, men dressing up as heightened and absurdist females. That process involves tucking some parts and adding padded other parts, and there’s an art and technique to it that a physical woman could skip, or at least have a head start with. Who they are psychologically is immaterial to the drag component, so if a nontransitioned trans woman wanted to compete, I’d see no problem. No one has explained to my why that view is misguided, though I’m (seriously) open to being enlightened.
Roan
Gunn’s portrayal of Jenny Bui was an offensive, racist Asian stereotype. Trinity Tuck’s version of Caitlyn Jenner as a gruff, butch man in a pantsuit was offensive to transwomen as well. But please, continue to tell us how Gunn and RuPaul are the victims here. Clearly RuPaul and the producers of this show haven’t learned anything from the controversies.
CarrieV
It’s a shame that Gia couldn’t have done her portrayal of Caitlyn Jenner as well.
Clearly, having two Caitlyn Jenners in one panel might’ve been too many Caitlyns, but as it turns out, the producers decided to put Gia and Trinity onto two separate Snatch Game of Love panels anyway. We wouldn’t have had to put up with that ghastly “impersonation” of whoever-the-hell Jenny Bui is, and Gia could’ve gone home on her own merits rather than leaving under this shtt-cloud.
BTW I didn’t see Trinity’s C.J. portrayal as insulting to transwomen… just to one individual transwoman only.
Roan
Carrie, Caitlyn Jenner notwithstanding, IMO playing any transwoman as a stomping man beast is offensive to all transwomen. Feel free to hold your own opinion. Personally, I don’t understand Jenner as a character choice as she’s neither funny nor has any particular trait to parody.
Brian
I heard this interview. Gia said that she and Trinity planned the Caitlyn thing prior to filming, and that she never had any intention of actually doing Caitlyn. She basically said all of her sh!t stirring was just to make good TV. She did come across as less loathsome in the interview, for whatever that’s worth.
Toofie
Gia was pretty miserable. Meanly needling and picking fights. Nothing wrong being the villain, but she wasn’t even entertaining or funny.
Dymension
I am confused. The whole point of a drag queen is they don’t want to be women, they just transform into an exaggerated imitation of a woman. Trans, on the other hand, are women, born in the wrong body. Why would they do an exaggerated imitation of a woman, when they are women and don’t need to exaggerate?
Roan
Are you being a troll or are you truly this obtuse? Gunn was a male drag performer who as part of her journey to discover her true self, made the decision to transition. She was a male drag performer, now she’s a trans drag performer. It’s not that complicated.
ShowMeGuy
Roan……do you even understand how DRAG works? A man creates a female character. A woman creates a male character. Are you saying that Transgendered women are still really men?
The reality is Gia wanted to make Drag Race all about her and RuPaul wasn’t having it.
RuPaul’s only mistake was having WOMEN compete on a show where men imitate women.
Greg
I thought she was a guy. She should have done Julie Chen as her Snatch Game celebrity.
MonkeyMan
Gia had this terrible, entitled attitude from the moment she appeared on AS4, like if anyone was against her opinions or didn’t love her drag they are automatically anti-trans. It was as if she wasn’t even competing, she just showed up to prove to us all that we don’t accept her and that RuPaul is just using her as a trophy trans woman.
She can team up with Carmen Carrera and bitch about the show until the cows come home but nobody will care until any of them are a fraction as talented and likable as your average Drag Race queen.
ShowMeGuy
When a man pretends to be an over-the-top female character…we call that Drag Queen.
When a woman pretends to be an over-the-top male character….we call that Drag King.
When a woman pretends to be an over-the-top female character….we call that Halloween.