The ’Rupaul’s Drag Race’ festive special has not exactly won unanimous praise from viewers since its debut last week, but fans have been impressed with one way the show has taken a step to become more inclusive of transgender contestants.
Earlier this year, RuPaul landed himself in hot water over comments about whether he would allow transgender women who had transitioned to compete on the show, going on to liken the situation to athletes taking performance enhancing drugs.
He later apologised for his remarks, and in the ‘Drag Race’ Christmas show, dubbed the ‘Holi-Slay Spectacular’, fans noticed that Ru had even adjusted one of his famous catchphrases to make it more trans-inclusive.
Towards the end of the episode – which saw the return of series two contestant Sonique, who came out as transgender in that year’s reunion special – Ru introduced the contestants to the mainstage by saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. And may the best woman win.”
As fans of the show will know, the host usually only declares “gentlemen, start your engines…”, with the newly-updated slogan winning praise on social media:
Sonique finished in ninth place in the second series of ‘Drag Race’, losing out to Morgan McMichaels in the ‘2 Of Hearts’ lip sync, following her ill-fated Lady Gaga imitation in the ‘Snatch Game’ challenge.
It’s expected that RuPaul’s new catchphrase will be retained for the upcoming series of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars’, which will include the return of Gia Gunn, another contestant who has come out as trans since first competing on the show.
Despite having already filmed her ‘All Stars’ stint at the time of RuPaul’s controversial remarks about trans contestants, Gia later told fans she would not be willing to return to the show as she didn’t feel she’d be “welcome” as a trans woman.
‘RuPaul’s Drag Race Holi-Slay Spectacular’ is available to stream on Netflix now, while ‘All Stars 4’ will debut on Comedy Central later this week.
