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The hate is the latest in a long string of hate aimed at mostly queens of color that appear on the show.
*This story contains spoilers from RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs. the World, series 1, episode 1.
Yet another queen of color is suffering under abuse by followers of the RuPaul's Drag Race franchise.
The latest installment in the world of Drag Race, RuPaul's Drag Race UK vs. the World launched Tuesday. The series is the first to bring together former competitors from Drag Race iterations all over the world to compete against one another. Filmed in the U.K., the show airs on BBC Three in the U.K. and WOW Presents Plus elsewhere.
In the debut episode, 10 queens faced off against one another in a format familiar to All Stars watchers: Competitors complete a Maxi Challenge and the two top performers lip-synch to determine the week's winner. In addition to winning, the victorious queen must eliminate one of the bottom queens.
Pangina Heals, who made history as the first Drag Race judge to become a competitor, lip-synched against Jimbo after they were both named the week's tops. The former Drag Race Thailand judge won the battle and eliminated Lemon, who had joined the race from Canada's Drag Race.
On social media, hate poured in, lambasting Heals for sending home the Canadian. The worst of those comments included death threats, but in addition, many resorted to racist remarks. On Wednesday, in order to try to process the deluge of hate, Heals took to Instagram Live.
\u201cOkay now its racist remarks and death threats\u2026 \nPlease be kind to other humans. You may not agree with my decision and I can respect that BUT violence or threats are not okay\u201d— Pangina Heals (@Pangina Heals) 1643783979
"This is how we're going to deal," she said. To cope, she took song suggestions from fans and sang some of the hate-filled tweets to the melody of the chosen songs.
"Ching chong, why did you eliminate Lemon? Go back to your country, we don't want you here," she sang to the tune of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance."
"I felt this was kind of therapeutic," she explained, going on to sing other tweets. "Just to sing about things that people said that are hateful to you. Things that are racist to you. Things that are unkind to you, just to make light out of it."
As Heals pointed out in her Live, this is not the first time this has happened. In All Stars season 4, Naomi Smalls was sent death threats for eliminating Manila Luzon and Latrice Royale was sent hate for eliminating Valentina. All Stars season 3 saw Bebe Zahara Benet suffer the same for sending home Aja. Specific threats of violence have also been made against performers, as when viewers threatened to burn Asia O'Hara alive in season 10.
In 2020, the show itself began to address this hate. It released a public service announcement and posted on social media that fans should not share hate.
Heals said the hate was new to her, but others in the competition spoke out in support of her.
"YOURE NOT MY FAN IF YOURE DOING THIS SHIT!!!!!" Lemon wrote on Twitter, regarding the hate-filled comments. "It's never deep enough to send hate to my friend yall!! I love Pan and she had to pick someone!! If you disagree just send me a dollar and STFU."
\u201cit\u2019s never deep enough to send hate to my friend yall!! i love pan and she had to pick someone!! if you disagree just send me a dollar and stfu \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffc\u200d\u2642\ufe0f\u2728\u201d— lemon (@lemon) 1643775669
\u201cYOURE NOT MY FAN IF YOURE DOING THIS SHIT !!!!!!!!!!!\u201d— lemon (@lemon) 1643784273
"I'm so thankful for all the people who came and defended me: [Divina de Campo], Baga Chips, [Janey Jacke], obviously Lemon," Heals said on her livestream, mentioning others who stuck up for her. "I'm just thankful for each and every one of you."
