A contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race
came out transgender to her fellow contestants on Friday night's
episode.
Peppermint, a New York-based drag
performer, told her castmates, “I'm a trans woman.”
Her revelation came amid a discussion
about masculinity and femininity.
“It was actually through my drag that
I realized my transness,” Peppermint said. “I'm trans. I'm a
trans woman.”
“It took me a long time to really
sort out gender,” she continued. “And at a really early age, I
was able to latch on to drag, and that was how I was able to express
my femininity. But I kind of evolved to realize that all the drag
things that I wanted to do, it always led back to the realization
that I’m a trans woman.”
In a separate interview, Peppermint
admitted that she was afraid to reveal her identity to her castmates,
most of whom identity as gay cisgender men.
“There’s a lot of people who think
drag queens are not trans and shouldn’t be,” she said. “And
there’s a lot of trans people who think that drag queens have no
place in the trans community. I wanted to really get to know the
girls before I came out to them. I was afraid.”
The other RuPaul's Drag Race
contestants applauded Peppermint's courage.
“It feels so good to feel fully
accepted,” Peppermint said. “I'm so happy right now.”
Peppermint came out publicly in a
Cosmopolitan video posted in March. In the 2-minute
video, Peppermint says that she used “drag as a disguise to
transition underneath.”
Peppermint joins other RuPaul's Drag
Race contestants who have come out transgender, including Sonique
(season 2), Carmen Carrera (3), Jiggly Caliente (4), Monica Beverly
Hillz (5) and Gia Gunn, who appeared on season six of the reality
show and came out earlier this month.