“RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Bianca Del Rio was criticized over a comedy routine at Montreal Pride on Friday which included several jokes about rape and fellow “Drag Race” contestant Blair St. Clair’s experience with sexual assault.
“Then you’ve got that other bitch, ‘I was raped!’” said Del Rio of St. Clair, suggesting that the claim was intended to boost her sagging position on the show. “You notice she wasn’t raped until she was in the bottom two? Think about that, bitch. That’s strategy. that’s f—ing strategy!”
“Oh f— you, rape is funny if you haven’t had it,” Del Rio said before delivering the kicker.
“If you weren’t raped, remember this, you’re ugly. Oh, we’re supposed to have sympathy? F— you.”
The remarks drew a lot of laughs — but also some boos — and an immediate rebuke from St. Clair.
“In the U.S. someone is sexually assaulted every 2 minutes, but people persist in thinking that making rape or sexual assault jokes is ‘comedy.’ It is not,” she said in a tweet which swiftly went viral. “Rape jokes contribute to rape culture.”
In the U.S. someone is sexually assaulted every 2 minutes, but people persist in thinking that making rape or sexual assault jokes is “comedy.” It is not. Rape jokes contribute to rape culture.
— Blair St. Clair (@BlairStClair) August 18, 2018
In addition to St. Clair’s statement, Montreal Pride apologized on its Facebook page for the Del Rio routine and moved to “severely disassociate” itself from the remarks.
“The Montréal Pride Festival would like to severely disassociate itself from certain remarks made during the Drag Superstars show on Thursday, August 16th, 2018,” it said.
“The approach of certain sensitive themes, presented in the form of so-called jokes, in no way reflects the policies of our organization and we apologize to anyone who has experienced discomfort due to these events. We will also take the necessary steps to ensure that such situations do not happen again.”
https://www.facebook.com/fiertemontrealpride/posts/10155338066926261
The news was first reported by Into — a news site, owned by the gay dating app Grindr.
The criticism is par for the course for Bianca Del Rio, one of the most well-known winners of the long-running LOGO series.
Del Rio is also increasingly looking to break into film. Her first flick, Hurricane Bianca came out in 2016 to mixed reviews. The drag queen and her longtime collaborator Matt Kugelman debuted their next film “From Russia With Hate” in May and it is now on Netflix.
A rep for Del Rio did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.