She has (almost) arrived! The season 14 premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race is right around the corner, and the 14 queens fighting for the title are already making history. In a Drag Race first, the show, known for bringing queer identities to mainstream media [1], has cast 26-year-old Maddie Morphosis from Fayetteville, AR, the first straight, cisgender male to be cast in the competition.
"I feel like my being on the show is definitely something that RuPaul's Drag Race hasn't seen before," Morphosis said in a video titled "Meet the Queens of Season 14!" on the show's YouTube account. "Hopefully the random cisgender, straight guys watching Drag Race with their girlfriends can realise that it's OK to be yourself, embrace your femininity. It doesn't change who you are. It doesn't define who you are . . . Gender is completely arbitrary. Just be yourself."
This marks the first time someone who doesn't identify as LGBTQ+ has participated in the show, further expanding the definition of what it means to be a drag queen. "I really broke that glass ceiling. It's finally time for straight white men to have their piece of the pie," he joked. "I am straight. I don't consider myself a straight drag queen. I'm just a drag queen who happens to be straight. My sexuality doesn't define the drag that I do; it doesn't impact that. It's just a facet of who I am outside of drag."
"My sexuality doesn't define the drag that I do."
Morphosis, who has been doing drag since 2017, will compete alongside trans contestants [2] Kerri Colby and Kornbread "The Snack" Jeté, a trained ballet dancer, a pageant queen, and more, so the competition this season is steep. "I feel very lucky and privileged to be here," said Morphosis, whose drag persona is camp meets comedy. "This is a chance for me to experience so much more in life and see more of the world, and hopefully take home the crown and pay off my college loans . . . Coming to this competition, my goal was just to get here. But now that I'm here, I'm leaving with the crown."
As for the name? Maddie Morphosis is a play on "metamorphosis, "which is, in my opinion, the epitome of what drag is," he said. "Obviously, being a straight drag queen, you start getting a couple sideways glances. But for the most part, everybody has really embraced me and supported me doing drag."
The two-part premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race season 14 airs on Friday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m. ET, immediately followed by the after-show, RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked at 9:30 p.m. ET. Check out the rest of the cast here.