Maddy Morphosis has issued a statement about becoming the first-ever heterosexual cisgender male to compete on Drag Race.
RuPaul’s Drag Race announced the cast of its upcoming 14th season and the show is once again making herstory.
Season 13 ushered in a new era for Drag Race with the inclusion of the franchise’s first-ever out transgender male contestant, Gottmik, who went on to win two challenges and make it all the way to the top four.
The sixth season of All Stars saw Kylie Sonique Love snatch the crown, making her the first-ever transgender winner on the US edition of the show.
Season 14 will see a continuation of this increasing diversity and representation as, for the first time, two trans queens (Kerry Colby and Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté) will compete at once.
Also among the 14 queens revealed by World of Wonder on 3 December is Maddy Morphosis – the first-ever straight, cisgender male drag queen to take appear on Drag Race.
Her casting has proven to be highly controversial among the show’s viewers, resulting in a statement from Maddy on 5 December.
“Hi everyone, I just wanted to take a moment and talk about a few things regarding myself, the show, and the reaction,” the queen wrote on Instagram. “Obviously, with short clips and snippets you don’t get a full sense of who someone is, or their story.”
Maddy explained that she “entered the scene shortly after high school” as it provided a “safe space” for her to explore her gender identity.
The 27-year-old continued: “The people I met, and the experiences I had helped me understand more about gender and sexuality, what it meant to me, and where I fit in with everything.
“Drag wasn’t even something I considered when I first started going out. It was something that just happened to be in the scene I was in, that I fell in love with.
“But doing drag the past 5 years has given me even more opportunities to further explore my own identity, and also understand more about others.”
Maddy added that she isn’t appearing on Drag Race “to show the world that ‘straight guys can do drag.’”
“The concepts of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are arbitrary and made up,” she explained. “And the rigid line drawn between them just feeds the stigma of men who embrace femininity, and perpetuates the cycle of toxic-masculinity.
“If there’s a message that I hope to convey to people, it’s that you don’t have to inhabit the box society puts you in just to be comfortable in your own sexuality.
“I’m not here to show the world that ‘straight guys can do drag’. For anyone saying that I’m representing an underrepresented group, I appreciate you, but straight men are not a persecuted and excluded group within the drag community.”
Maddy rounded out her statement by confirming that she has “always felt welcomed in every drag space I’ve entered” and that she hopes her appearance on the show “helps lead to more marginalized groups being showcased and represented.”
The other queens competing on season 14 are Alyssa Hunter, Angeria Paris VanMicheals, Bosco, Daya Betty, Deja Skye, Jasmine Kennedie, Jorgeous, June Jambalaya, Kerri Colby, Kornbread “The Snack” Jeté, Lady Camden, Orion Story, Willow Pill.
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 14 will premiere weekly from 4AM GMT on Saturday 8 January 2022 exclusively on WOW Presents Plus. Subscribe by clicking here.
You can read Maddy’s full statement below or by clicking here.
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