Drag Race star Kerri Colby calls for action as anti-trans rhetoric intensifies: ‘Wake up and do something’
Kerri Colby (Getty)
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Kerri Colby has issued a stark warning about the rising tide of anti-LGBTQ+ hate in America and beyond.
In a series of tweets shared with her Twitter followers, otherwise known as ‘Kerr Bears’, the season 14 fan favourite shared her concerns that the so-called ‘great transgender debate’ will become a key issue moving towards the 2024 presidential election.
“I have an uneasy feeling based on what I’ve been seeing,” she began. “I feel that this great transgender debate is going to push many people to the right wing side of 2024, unless we really wake up and do something”.
The Dallas-born queen icon then took aim at both sides of the political spectrum, noting that while the right wing faction are actively weaponising the topic of trans rights, those on the left are refusing to even engage with it.
“The topic is continuously being weaponised against us,” she continued. “And the left is just burying the topic under the rug because there isn’t a proper person in place to educate people on the matter.”
Colby then shared chilling details of how the Texas attorney general requested the data of all people who have changed their gender marker in the last 24 months, noting there was no reason given for this request.
During her run on Drag Race, Colby was lovingly afforded the nickname ‘Tranos’ for her ability to make fellow contestants feel confident enough to be their authentic selves, with Jasmine Kennedie coming out as trans in one of the franchise’s most memorable moments. Finalist Bosco and winner Willow Pill also came out in the wake of the show.
Since her season, Colby has also become a figure that many young trans people turn to for advice and support – something she’s fully turning her attention to in her new agony aunt series Kerri Kares.
“Children will always need structure when coming to their decisions on identity and critical decision making,” she wrote in her Twitter thread, as well as clarifying that she thinks “more precautions” are needed for underage gender affirming treatments.
“But do I think their right to authentic expression shouldn’t exist at all? Absolutely not that’s absurd.”
Colby’s latest warning about the violence facing the trans community comes as Donald Trump vowed to ban on gender-affirming treatments for minors if he’s re-elected in 2024, in what might be his most significant assault yet on trans rights.
Trump described gender-affirming care as “an act of child abuse”, before outlining his plan to stop “the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth”.
Tweets subsequently posted by Colby highlighted the treatment of trans celebrities as “a low vibrational blood bath”, and rightly pointed out that when there are “so many catastrophic things economically and ethically at risk”, trans lives should not up for debate.
One of Colby’s most impactful tweets on the matter discussed the credence given to those perpetuating violent rhetoric about the entire LGBTQ+ community.
“This revival of protecting children and painting our community to be the cause of modern day corruption instead of holding people responsible who are abusing and have abused the young in the guise of religion is starting to seemingly be listened to.”
This revival of protecting children and painting our community to be the cause of modern day corruption instead of holding people responsible who are abusing and have abused the young in the guise of religion. Is starting to seemingly be listened to.
— Kerri Elyse Colby (@kerricolby) February 1, 2023
