They’re both already winners, baby! Two of the stars of the upcoming season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7, Yvie Oddly (who snatched the season 11 crown) and Trinity The Tuck (who reigned victorious on All Stars 4, in a tie with Monét X Change) were in attendance at the 33rd Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York on Friday, May 6th.
In a memorable moment during the ceremony, the Drag Race-winning queens took to the GLAAD Awards stage to oversee a drag contest between the evening’s co-hosts, celebrity Peloton Instruction Cody Rigsby and actress and GLAAD Board Member Peppermint. Rigsby impressed the crowd with an energetic Britney Spears tribute, but as a former Drag Race competitor herself, Peppermint had the upper-hand and was the clear audience favourite with her Janet lip-sync.
Ahead of the show, Yvie Oddly and Trinity The Tuck stopped to chat with the The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann on the GLAAD Awards red carpet. Watch the full video interview here and read highlights below.
Reflecting on what it was like to be in a cast of all previous Drag Race winners, Trinity shared, “It made it more fun because we all knew each other very well. Even though it seems like there would be more pressure, going in I felt like there was actually less pressure because each of us knows who we are and we can just deliver who we are, we’re not really comparing ourselves.” Oddly concurs, “Plus when you know that everybody’s going to be great at what they do it’s a lot harder to try and compare yourself. Like, I already already know that this girl sings, I already knows she acts, or I’m a fan of this girl’s dancing. You just go in and you put on your best show. It was really unique and it was so supportive.”
But having already snatched the crowns on their respective seasons, did they have any reservations about placing lower in All Stars 7? Oddly puts it succinctly, giving us a blast of her signature dirty cackle, “Yes!” Whereas for Trinity, it’s the taking part that counts: “When you go on a reality TV show you have to remember to have fun! Yes, you’re going in it to win, but go have fun too because at the end of the day you can’t manipulate anything else, you can only do your best.”
The rest of the cast features Drag Race 3 winner Raja, season 5 winner Jinkx Monsoon, All Stars 4 winner Monét X Change (who tied with Trinity The Tuck), Drag Race UK season 1 winner The Vivienne, season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall, and All Stars 5 winner Shea Couleé. Asked who they were most thrilled to compete alongside in All Stars 7, Oddly offered, “I was really excited to compete against Raja because she was one of the first queens who I really fell in love with from the show and she helped to change my perspective of what drag can be. I was really hoping that we’d get to braid each other’s hair and drink wine together!”
For Trinity, it’s impossible to single out just one queen. “Honestly, this is such a pageant answer, coming from a pageant queen, but every single queen that’s in the cast, I’ve either worked with or done the competition with already, so I was excited to see what the dynamic was going to be; what else can we do? What else can we create? I was just excited about their experience in general.”
As well as entraining millions of television viewers across the globe, Drag Race also creates meaningful LGBTQ+ representation on a major scale. Reflecting on that aspect of the show, Oddly adds, “It means speaking to some kid out there who was just like I was, because I was in high school when the show first started, I was sneaking to watch it and getting to see my first glimpses of what a fully grown gay life could be and the struggles that drag queens would go through. So it’s nice to be a part of that legacy and know that just by living my truth, I’m helping somebody else discover theirs.”
“It’s great that we have a platform for queer people and Drag Race has become so big”, adds Trinity, “And there are so many different types of queens that have been on it and there are so many different niches, so there’s something for somebody out there. So if they’re watching, they can see a little bit of themselves in one of us and hopefully that can help to motivate them and show them that they can be anything they want to be, even a drag queen on TV!”
On what attending the GLAAD Awards means to her, Oddly shares, “It was important for me to be here because the community is very important to me. So to get to be at an event that really celebrates what the community has done and how we’re progressing and how we’re still fighting, I’m just blown away!”
“I think it’s really exciting to be part of something queer and on a huge platform like this when the world is how it is right now”, adds Trinity. “It’s important for us to continue to show up and to show out and to not disappear, because that’s the only way we’re going to keep moving forward and GLAAD is a positive beacon for that.”
By James Kleinmann
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 starts streaming Paramount Plus on Friday May 20th.
For more information on GLAAD head to glaad.org, and connect on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.