Gottmik speaks out about Drag Race casting first straight, cisgender male queen
Maddy Morphosis was unveiled as part of the season 14 cast earlier this month
Words; Jamie Tabberer; pictures: WoW
Gottmik has weighed on the casting of Maddy Morphosis – a straight, cisgendered, male contestant – on the upcoming season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
News of Maddy’s casting caused backlash among some quarters on social media, with the queen later responding in an Instagram statement: “Straight men are not a persecuted and excluded group within the drag community. I’ve always felt welcomed in every drag space I’ve entered, and have never been shunned, excluded or persecuted because of my sexuality.”
Gottmik became the show’s first trans male competitor after stepping out on this year’s season 14.
“It’s not about your identity”
The star recently told Variety: “When I first got announced on the show, I was flooded with people who did not think I should be on the show or I shouldn’t be doing drag. [But] drag is for everyone.”
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“It’s an art form,” she added. “It’s not about your identity.”
Continued the 25-year-old: “As long as she [Maddy Morphosis] knows where drag came from and the references and just the background of the sacred form that drag truly is, she’s gonna be fine.”
Elsewhere, Drag Race UK this year cast Victoria Scone, a cisgendered woman, on the show.
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