Gia Gunn has credited RuPaul's Drag
Race with making her “the proud trans woman” that she is
today.
(The following story includes spoilers
for season 4 of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars.)
Gunn first competed on the reality
show's sixth season in 2014. Last year, she came out as transgender
and began transitioning. She returned to compete on the current
season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars, making her the first
openly transgender person to compete on the VH1 reality show.
(Several contestants, including Peppermint and Monica Beverly Hillz,
came out transgender as they competed.)
Speaking with Drag Race judge
Michelle Visage after her elimination from the show, Gunn said that
competing helped shape her gender identity.
“RuPaul's Drag Race is the
reason why I am the proud trans woman I am today,” Gunn
told Visage during an appearance on YouTube's Whatcha Packin'.
“That's why when I got that call [to
do All Stars 4] it was also so special for me to know that
after all the rumors and the drama and all the conflamas [conflict +
drama] that these doors were being opened to me,” she added,
referring to comments Drag Race host RuPaul made last year
about transgender contestants who had plastic surgery not being
allowed to compete on the show. RuPaul later apologized for the
remarks.