Courtney Act reveals RuPaul blocked her after chat about transphobic slur

Drag Race royalty Courtney Act has ruvealed that RuPaul herself blocked her on X following a conversation about the use of a transphobic slur on the show.

The drag queen, who was announced as a headliner for 2027’s Don’t Tell Mama weekend at Bognor Regis Butlin’s, told of the incident on the 13 May episode of the podcast The Kelly Mantle Show.

“How long after season six was it that RuPaul blocked you on Twitter?” host Kelly Mantle asked Courtney.

“It wasn’t that long,” Courtney replied, explaining that it was around the time she had engaged RuPaul in a conversation about a challenge that featured on her season of the show.

Contestants had paddles that read ‘female’ on one side and a transphobic slur that rhymes with ‘female’ on the other, and were tasked with holding up the paddles when shown pictures of cis and trans women.

 “It went to broadcast but it’s now been edited out of streaming,” Courtney explained.

“That sparked a conversation about the T-slur. And then Ru at that point doubled down and said: ‘If you’re worried about me calling you a word, then you’ve got bigger problems,’” she continued.

“And I was like, ‘Oh, here’s a great opportunity. RuPaul’s going to really respect this. I’m going to write a Facebook post, very thoughtful,’ sent it to my manager, got some edits to take out the temperature and make sure it was open and just saying, like, ‘Oh, you know, I agree in some ways, like I think trans people do have bigger problems than just a word, and I feel like we should be listening to them and focusing on [that].’”

Courtney went on to share how she focused on issues like homelessness and violence, which many trans people have to face “in the real world” that aren’t the same for other members of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I thought this was really thoughtful and Ru is going to appreciate me engaging in an intelligent conversation rather than just internet slander,” she said. “Blocked.”

“Girl, she did a TL;DR, too long, did not read,” replied Kelly Mantle.

‘There’s a fine line between not being open to criticism and biting the hand that feeds you’

When asked if RuPaul ever unblocked Courtney, she confirmed that she did.

“There was a gesture, but there was also a message that came with the gesture,” she said. “Todrick Hall and I were filming some videos together and I told him about the blocking, and he was like, ‘This must be a mistake.’”

Hall offered to message Ru and clear things up. Courtney shared that Ru called him, and Ru and Hall ended up on the phone for almst an hour while Hall paced outside the room.

“Todrick came in and he was like, ‘Well, it wasn’t an accident that she blocked you. And she knows that we’re friends so she asked that I don’t go into the details but she did say that I could tell you: I just don’t like you,’” she said.

RuPaul did eventually unblock Courtney, who admitted that there were no hurt feelings over the incident.

“I kind of get it,” she said. “Like it’s 2014. You’re just trying to do good in the world. You’re giving these queens opportunities. You’re putting them on television. You’re giving them a leg up in the world.

“And then those little b****** go around and like criticise you… There’s a fine line between not being open to criticism and biting the hand that feeds you.”

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