Jinkx Monsoon is making her Queerties award show debut by – how else? – hosting it as its HBIC emcee.
“I’ve never been able to attend The Queerties, but I’m so excited that my first year being able to attend, I’m hosting,” the two-time winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” told TheWrap, exclusively announcing her next big gig. “That feels like the Jinkx way to do it!”
Celebrating the best in LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, The Queerties are put on by popular entertainment news site Queerty.com, and its nominees are chosen by editors and voted on by readers. The 12th annual awards’ nominees span genres, practices and mediums with out-and-proud film and TV actors, TikTokers, live theater performers, pop stars and more, from David Archuleta and Janelle Monáe to Andrew Scott and Colman Domingo.
A 2023 winner in the 11th annual ceremony’s top honor of best “Badass,” Monsoon emphasized the importance of “celebrating queer artists and unapologetically making space for more queer artists” with such occasions. “Look at how much we are contributing to our culture right now. You cannot deny our existence,” she said.
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“It’s important to continue to celebrate each other because it helps us feel unified and tight-knit as a community, and that unity is what we need most right now,” she continued, adding that her longtime creative partner, fellow “Drag Race” all star BenDeLaCreme, would end their touring holiday show by enforcing exactly that.
“There is just so much division and so much pitting against one another in the world that we don’t need to do that in our communities,” Monsoon said. “And I think the opposite of that is celebrating each other.”
A nominee in the live theater category going into this year’s Queerties – a fact that hilariously slipped her mind during our call (“I just can’t believe I’m also nominated, I didn’t think that was allowed when you host a show!”) – Monsoon said she’s especially looking forward to tapping into the event’s explosive energy onstage.
“It’s palpable to have us all together. Many queer people also practice witchcraft like myself, and to get all those practitioners in one area has to do something to magnetic fields, the polarity — I don’t know. It’s got to be in there. Somewhere between science and magic. It’s just an evening buzzing with chemicals,” she said, slyly adding: “There’s a double entendre in there!”
But whether witchcraft plays a part or not, one thing for certain is that Monsoon knows how to keep things rolling on the mic.
“The job of a host is to keep everyone invested in the awards, and I have a pretty good talent for keeping people awake and keeping people engaged between acceptance speeches,” she said, nodding to last year’s host Bianca Del Rio. “I might do it differently than, say, Bianca! But I’m pretty confident in my abilities.”
Monsoon can next be seen this spring on BBC One starring as the archvillain in “Doctor Who” Season 15, opposite “Sex Education” and “Barbie” breakout Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor. Fittingly, Gatwa is nominated as the year’s top Badass alongside “The Last of Us” star Bella Ramsey, Emmy winner Billy Porter, “Drag Race” winner Sasha Colby, boundary-breaking influencer Dylan Mulvaney and others. Is Monsoon rooting for her sci-fi series costar in the category she took home last year?
“Oh my gosh – I don’t know who else is in that category, but it’ll be hard to vote for anyone other than Ncuti because not only was he just the most fantastic scene partner, but in ‘Barbie,’ talk about a scene-stealer!” Monsoon enthused. “That’s a badass to me.”
The 12th annual Queerties hit Los Angeles on March 12. Check out the full list of nominees (and vote for your favorites through Feb. 22) here.
