She’s been the most controversial contestant in this season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and now evicted queen Gia Gunn has popped some shots off in the direction of popular host and drag legend RuPaul, alleging they had a tense face-to-face encounter that was edited from the show.
The duo have a fraught history, with Ru coming under fire last year for suggesting he probably wouldn’t want trans performers on the drag competition, as he felt they had an unfair advantage. He later apologised, and notably cast two trans artists in recent Drag Race productions: Sonique and Gia, both of whom have undergone gender transitions since their first appearances in the franchise.
When Gia was cast in All Stars 4, many were expecting fireworks, or perhaps a dramatic face-to-face apology. But no such encounter was aired.
Now Gia claims such a face-off did happen, leaving her ‘upset’ as she entered the Snatch Game segment – which infamously ended in total disaster for the performer. She claims the encounter was deliberately edited out to protect the host’s image.
When asked by former contestant Willem on the enormously popular Race Chaser podcast if the pair spoke about their fraught history, Gia insisted they had.
‘Of course it wasn’t aired,’ Gia complained. ‘I very well knew that none of that was going to air because the show is not about making her look anything but great.’
It’s worth noting that this season RuPaul has not appeared in any of his traditional work room interaction sequences with the contestants, a situation which may simply represent a format change for the long-running show.
Gia insists the unscreened encounter threw her off ahead of what is arguably one of the show’s most challenging segments, one requiring excellent comedy and mimicry skills. She infamously bombed out in her controversial portrayal of nail art guru Jenny Bui.
‘I felt completely disregarded,’ Gia told Race Chaser. ‘I didn’t feel acknowledged. I didn’t feel wanted, to be there in the competition. And truthfully it really hurt my feelings and I had a really big breakdown in between sets and I was just like, “If I’m getting this feeling from her and I don’t feel very welcome then what the f*** am I doing here?”
She then went on to harshly imply her casting was simply a cynical stunt.
‘If we were going to bring somebody on the show to basically, y’know, clean up somebody’s mess, obviously that fell on me, right? Because months before she had made a statement that was completely opposite of what they did. And I knew by being casted that I was going on there to basically show the world that this show does quote unquote support trans and that she does see trans people as drag queens.
‘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 “oh, you’ve come so far” or “your journey has been so beautiful to watch” or anything of that sort, I just felt really hurt.’
Gia’s latest comments seem to contrast with sentiments expressed in her exit interview on YouTube, where she says, ‘I’m feeling content with my time on All Stars.’
In the same interview she confessed she failed at Snatch Game because of her own shortcomings as a performer.
‘I really bombed the challenge because it’s just not one of my strengths,’ she admitted, confessing she should have ‘prepared better.’
While Gia recently slated RuPaul on stage, raging: ‘f*** Miss RuPaul and her ignorant-ass comments’, the Supermodel icon has been far more restrained on the matter, and has not yet commented on the latest allegations.
He last spoke on the trans controversy last year on Twitter, apologising for his prior comments and committing to a fair process for all.
‘Each morning I pray to set aside everything I THINK I know, so I may have an open mind and a new experience,’ Ru wrote. ‘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.’
Whatever happens next, one thing seems sure: Gia won’t be invited back to Drag Race any time soon.
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