‘Drag Race’ star: FBI told us we were ‘moving targets’ after Pulse nightclub shooting
Ginger Minj was on tour during the massacre which killed 49 people
By Steve Brown
A RuPaul’s Drag Race star has revealed the FBI told them they were ‘moving targets’ after the Pulse nightclub shooting.
In 2016, Omar Mateen open fired at the LGBT club in Orlando while it was hosting a Latin night and in total, 49 people were killed and 53 injured, making it the deadliest mass shooting by a sole gunman in US history at the time.
Mateen was shot and killed by police.
At the time, Ginger Minj – who starred in season 7 of the hit show – was on the Battle of the Seasons tour when the shooting happened and while speaking to UPI, she revealed she was told they were ‘moving targets’.
She said: “It was too hard to go back for a long time. The second I step up to it, it puts me right back to that first moment and it never gets easier. It never does.
“We had the FBI coming in telling us, we were on the Battle of the Seasons tour at the time, they were like, ‘You guys are a dozen of the most popular drag queens in the world. You’re a moving target right now’.
“You never want anyone who looks official to tell you, ‘Hey, you’re a moving target’.”
For the rest of the tour, the whole cast had to take extra precautions, but Ginger Minj – whose real name is Joshua Eads – went on to say she will never take her career as a drag queen for granted again.
She continued: “It taught me drag is a whole lot more than just dressing up in a costume and hitting the stage.
“It’s a cathartic experience for a lot of people. And we’re so lucky and bless that we’re good at it and people care about us doing it.
“So, I have never once taken a show for granted ever since then.”