Michelle Visage shares touching adoption story as Drag Race judges raise thousands for charity
Michelle Visage shares powerful adoption story as Drag Race judges help raise thousands for charity (jazzt21/Instagram)
Michelle Visage and the Drag Race judges have helped to raise an incredible $250,000 for an LGBTQ+ adoption agency.
Michelle Visage, Ross Mathews, Carson Kressley and Jeffrey Bower Chapman hosted an event in Los Angeles on Thursday (22 September) for adoption and fostering agency Extraordinary Families, which works with LGBTQ+ parents and children, Variety reported.
The event saw lunch dates with Mathews and Kressley auctioned off, and Visage shared that she had lived in a foster home before being adopted.
“These kids deserve the love and the homes, and I don’t know where I’d be if I wasn’t adopted into the family that I was adopted,” she said.
“LGBTQ+ families who want to adopt are often discriminated against and it’s gross that we’re still fighting this fight going into 2023.”
Extraordinary Families CEO Barnaby Murff added that “support like this makes it possible for them [children in LA] to be safe and loved”.
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Cast members of the latest season of Drag Race UK have said series four will be its most diverse yet, and will “challenge narratives” about the drag scene.
Cheddar Gorgeous from Manchester told PinkNews the new series could help “challenge misconceptions” about drag after a spate of protests across the UK against drag queens reading books to children.
“When you’re able to put yourself out there and show the diversity of what we do, that in itself is a challenge to those other narratives that you see being spun about drag,” Cheddar said.
This year’s line-up includes the first ever trans woman to appear on Drag Race UK, Dakota Schiffer, the first bearded queen on the show, and several queens of colour.
Black Peppa, a Birmingham-based Caribbean drag queen, said: “I’m just happy that we finally have a cast that looks like this because when I was young, I wanted representation.
“Seeing the diversity of the cast this time around, it just felt amazing.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season four will continue on Thursday (29 September) at 9pm on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.
