Friday’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race took an emotional turn when season 16 queen Q revealed she was diagnosed with HIV two years ago.
She explained how her look was a way to pay homage to those currently affected by the virus and those tragically lost to the AIDS epidemic.
“I am doing something very sentimental for the runway today,” she said before Friday’s show. “It’s inspired by the generation of gay people that we lost to the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s. So it’s really, really special to me.”
Q admits that when she was originally diagnosed, she struggled to come to terms with how she would be treated after telling loved ones.
“When I first got my diagnosis I felt like really lost and I felt, like, super alone,” she said. “I tested positive when I was 24. I was mostly scared about how I was going to be treated by family and people around me who don’t understand it, because it is so stigmatized.”
And unfortunately, she has experienced hate due to being HIV positive. She explained, “You know, people have said really awful and nasty things to me and almost de-humanizing me,” she recalled.
“It’s crazy how much people with HIV have to deal with. I’ve been treated differently by like, health care providers,” added Q. “I think it’s so important to have queer people in health care. You really feel that difference in care between those providers.”
We’ve previously seen other RuPaul's Drag Race, contestants like Ongina and Trinity K. Bonet speak out about their own HIV-positive diagnosis stories.
Season one queen Ongina infamously revealed her diagnosis while on the runway, inspiring thousands with her public reveal. Meanwhile, Trinity K. Bonet, in season six, also opened up about her experiences living with HIV.
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