Drag queen personality RuPaul has revealed he is building a “fortified compound” in preparation for an impending civil war.
The 63-year-old, whose real name is RuPaul Andrew Charles and whose show is often credited with promoting drag queens into popular culture, made the extraodinary revelation in a profile with The New Yorker‘s Ronan Farrow, explaining that he was “fearing the absolute worst” about the prospects of civil war:
RuPaul is braced for conflict. “I’m fearing the absolute worst,” he said. “We are moments away from fucking civil war. All the signs are there.” He continued, “Humans on this planet are in the cycle of destruction. I am plotting a safety net.”
He was referring to a fortified compound being constructed on the sixty-thousand-acre ranch of his husband, Georges LeBar, in Wyoming.
“I wouldn’t call it a bunker,” he said. But it is designed to withstand calamity. “It’s a lot of concrete and a lot of things. I keep thinking about these castles that I’m going to bed to.”
Over the course of the interview, the host of Ru Paul’s Drag Race also provided his views on gender and unsurprisingly he thinks it is not a real concept.
.@ronanfarrow spends time with the world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, who is at once a public figure and an extraordinarily private person. When asked how he’s doing, he often responds, “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” https://t.co/egEBu4lo3M
— The New Yorker (@NewYorker) March 1, 2024
“Gender is a concept that we come up with, in our minds and our egos,” he told Farrow. “My genitals are male. But I can be whatever I can. I feel I’m everything. You are everything. You are male, female. Sometimes I feel more male than others.”
“If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her because knowledge is power, and if someone tries to restrict your access to power, they are trying to scare you. So listen to a drag queen!”
—RuPaul’s #Emmys speech pic.twitter.com/14VLicse38
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) January 16, 2024
Earlier this year, Charles used his acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards to defend the rise of Drag Queen Story Hours, where men dress up as women and read sex stories to impressionable young children.
“Listen, if a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her,” Charles said as he accepted the award. “Knowledge is power and if someone tries to restrict your access to power, they are trying to scare you.”