As the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars was announced for January 25, fans were faced with interesting news: Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, will be a guest judge in an episode this season. Other guest judges will include Vanessa Hudgens, Marc Jacobs, Shay Mitchell, and Adam Lambert.
What is RuPaul's Drag Race and what is an “All Star Season?"
RuPaul's Drag Race is a reality TV competition produced for LogoTV that features drag queens from all over the U.S. competing in many different challenges to win the title of "America's Next Drag Superstar." Some of their challenges include clothing design, runway walks, lip syncing, impersonations, and photoshoots. The All Star season is simply the return of the public's favorite characters from past seasons who didn't win but had entertaining personalities.
Which queens are coming back for the All Star season?
The competing drag queens are Aja (Season 9), BenDeLaCreme (Season 6), Chi Chi DeVayne (Season 8), Kennedy Davenport (Season 7), Milk (Season 6), Morgan McMichaels (Season 2), Shangela (Season 2 & 3), Thorgy Thor (Season 8), and Trixie Mattel (Season 7).
Who is Nancy Pelosi?
Nancy Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representativeness. She’s a congresswoman from California and previously was the first woman ever to be named Speaker of the House. And now she’s the first national politician to judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Why is this a big deal?
Ellie Hoffman (C ’21) sees a natural progression from politics to drag. “There’s a lot of queens who say that drag is inherently very political, and I believe that.” Even reality TV today is politicized; if the star of The Apprentice can be president, why can’t the process work in reverse? And politicians are becoming increasingly media–savvy and looking for new channels to connect to constituents. Nancy Pelosi is using Drag Race as a message of support to her LGBT constituents and leveraging new ways of connecting with voters. And hopefully we’ll get to see her in a lip–sync battle.
Tune in on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET for the first episode of a dragtastic season!
