The cast of “Canada’s Drag Race” call out toxic fans
The popularity of the debut season of “Canada’s Drag Race” has erupted over the summer, and now that the crown is in sight of the Top 4 Queens – Jimbo (Victoria, BC), Rita Baga (Montreal, QC), Priyanka (Toronto, ON) and Scarlett Bobo (Toronto, ON/Vancouver, BC) – it appears the ‘toxic fans’ of the Drag series are relentless on social media, bombarding some of the cast members with hateful messages and mean comments.
Rita Baga has been receiving hate online over the course of the season, most recently because some fans think she should have been eliminated on last week’s episode instead of Top 5 contestant Lemon, saying Rita Baga shouldn’t have won the “Lip-Sync For Your Life” and doesn’t deserve to be in the Top 4.
Just this past weekend, one of the head judges and host of the show, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, deactivated his Twitter account, and while he has not been public with his reasonings, many are suspecting it’s because of hateful messages he was also receiving from fans said to be unhappy with his critiques and don’t think he’s qualified to be a judge.
Nearly every comment on Jeffrey’s promotional photo for this week’s episode is negative, and because of this ongoing toxic behaviour from the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” fandom, some of “The Dolls” (as the Canadian cast calls themselves) have taken to Twitter to speak up:
MoJo Toronto would like to reiterate that regardless of anyone’s opinions on the show and its cast, it is never okay to spread hate. The fact remains that “Canada’s Drag Race” is great television, and it would do good for everyone that watches to remember that it’s just a TV show. It’s entertainment. But outside of the show, our community faces hate every single day, and we cannot move backwards by sending the same hate we receive from others to one another.
“Uplift your community.”
Watch the next episode of “Canada’s Drag Race” streaming live this Thursday, August 27 at 9 PM EST/6 PM PST on Crave Canada.
