Mon. May 1, 2017
New York, NY -
A contestant on RuPaul's Drag Race came out transgender to her fellow contestants on Friday night's episode.
Peppermint, a New York-based drag performer, told her castmates, "I'm a trans woman."
Her revelation came amid a discussion about masculinity and femininity.
"It was actually through my drag that I realized my transness," Peppermint said. "I'm trans. I'm a trans woman."
"It took me a long time to really sort out gender," she continued. "And at a really early age, I was able to latch on to drag, and that was how I was able to express my femininity. But I kind of evolved to realize that all the drag things that I wanted to do, it always led back to the realization that I'm a trans woman."
In a separate interview, Peppermint admitted that she was afraid to reveal her identity to her castmates, most of whom identity as gay cisgender men.
"There's a lot of people who think drag queens are not trans and shouldn't be," she said. "And there's a lot of trans people who think that drag queens have no place in the trans community. I wanted to really get to know the girls before I came out to them. I was afraid."
The other RuPaul's Drag Race contestants applauded Peppermint's courage.
"It feels so good to feel fully accepted," Peppermint said. "I'm so happy right now."
Peppermint came out publicly in a Cosmopolitan video posted in March. In the 2-minute video, Peppermint says that she used "drag as a disguise to transition underneath."
Peppermint joins other RuPaul's Drag Race contestants who have come out transgender, including Sonique (season 2), Carmen Carrera (3), Jiggly Caliente (4), Monica Beverly Hillz (5) and Gia Gunn, who appeared on season six of the reality show and came out earlier this month.
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