In 1981, the first notable cases of AIDS in the USA started appearing. In 1982, it was an epidemic. Over the next decade, nearly a million people would be infected in the states. 7 out of 10 of those diagnozed where gay men. Because of this, the general discussion around HIV became one of morals. The government, instead of putting money into research and trying to prevent the spread of this new and contagious illness, began putting forth the idea that this was a divine punishment against the queers and homos. They had every possibility to put forth an aggressive campaign to protect their citizens. But instead, they did nothing. They happily sat back and watched hundreds of thousands of people, mostly gay men, get sick and die, alone and betrayed by their own leaders. In fact, these people where even told that they only had themselves to blame for this disease. They were told that because they were gay, they deserved to die.
RuPaul was 21 years old in 1981. When the AIDS epidemic broke out he was a young adult, forced to spend his youth under the eye of a society that proclaimed men like him had it coming when they contracted an unknown and deadly disease. He most likely knew plenty of people affected, and he was part of the group that took the worst hit. His whole twenties stretched over a time where homophobia was so profound and prevalent in America that gay men dropped dead by the thousands and were met with at best indifferance from the politicians and at times with triumphant cheers from the homophobic masses. Some way to live your best years.
In 1998, a young man, at this point also 21, named Matthew Shepard, would be brutally tortured to death by two men his own age. The reason was because Matthew was gay. His death eventually lead to the passing of “The Shepard/Byrd Act” for hate crime prevention in 2009, eleven years after his murder. A month and a half ago, October 12 2018, marked the 20th anniversary of Matthew Shepards killing. He would have been in his 40s today had he been allowed to live.
RuPaul was 38 years old when the murder of Matthew Shepard took place. At this time in his life he had lived through the AIDS crisis, and he would not see the right to marry in all 50 states for another 17 years.
And now, in 2018, RuPaul is a famous tv personality, a black gay man nearing 60 years old, who against all odds in a wildly homophobic society not only survived, but prospered. And here you sit, calling him a bigot for saying he might not allow people who aren´t gay men to compete on his frivolous tv show, for gay men.
The fact that you people are so clueless of gay history is honestly tragic. Do you have no shame? You think you have the right to storm in and declare the RuPaul or Ellen DeGeneres or any other gay person nearing retirement to be “problematic” because they are not up to your new lingo. You come and you whine about how narrow minded they are, as if these people, THESE PEOPLE, don´t know what it feels like to be oppressed.
You may forget the persecution gay men have suffered in recent history, but believe me when I say that RuPaul and his peers have, and will, not. He was alive when Stonewall took place. He lived through the AIDS epidemic. He was 49 when attacks motivated by the victims sexual orientation became legally recognized as hate crimes. He was 55 when he gained the right to marry anywhere in the country where he was born and raised.
Needless to say that now, at 58 years of age, RuPaul Andre Charles, drag queen, singer, songwriter, television personality, author, is a man who has been through it. I don´t know much about him or his personal life, and you can have any opinion you want about his personality and his work. But as a gay man, he has lived through more than any of us should ever have to. And to now, at this point in time, turn around and proclaim him the real oppressor, is so malicious and cowardly and ignorant. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
I believe nobody is above critisism, RuPaul included. I´m sure he has done and said many a problematic things in his life. But this trend of going after elderly gay people and demanding they bend over backwards to include everyone in everything not only undermindes their lived experience, but also hurts the gay community as a whole. RuPaul has never killed anyone. He has never called for trans people to not be allowed human rights. It´s just not a human right to be on “RuPauls Drag Race”.
