Bimini Bon Boulash, a fan favorite of RuPaul’s Drag Race U.K., revealed that they’re genderfluid in a recent Twitter post.
The message comes after a botched runway reveal on the second episode of the show’s sophomore season. Bimini wore black latex balloons filled with paint over a white corset and popped them when they reached the end of the runway; the idea was that the paint inside would cover the corset in pink and blue, the colors of the trans pride flag. On the show, they told judges RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and Sheridan Smith that the look was inspired by Alexander McQueen, a beloved queer fashion designer who passed away in 2010.
But unfortunately, the balloons seemed to have lost some of their air, and the paint didn’t splatter. One possible reason: It takes a lot longer to shoot an episode of Drag Race U.K. than it looks on the screen, and the hours spent standing around backstage and waiting might’ve led to a slow deflation of the balloons and a drying of the paint.
Undaunted, Bimini tweeted a photo of how the effect was supposed to look, with a message of Pride and optimism.
“My idea was originally to paint my body in the colours of the trans* flag because I wanted to celebrate the beauty of being Trans and non-binary,” they wrote on Thursday. “As a person that identifies as fluid when it comes to gender I’ve experienced a lot of mental abuse, as well as physical abuse over the years due to my gender expression.”
Bimini’s bio indicates that they use they/them pronouns. They’re hardly alone among contestants among the global Drag Race franchise, with several alumni identifying outside the gender binary. Just some of the non-binary and gender nonconforming contestants to appear on the show include Sasha Velour, BenDeLaCreme, Jinkx Monsoon, and Valentina.
Shea Couleé, winner of All Stars Season Four, opened up about their nonbinary identity in a 2019 interview with them.
“At least for me in my personal life, being non-binary is just a lot easier,” Coulee said at the time. “Growing up, my family had very specific expectations for how they wanted me to behave. There’s a lot of toxic masculinity in the black community, and most of that stems from oppression due to slavery, where black men have been very emasculated by cis men. Often they want to raise their sons to be as strong, hardened, and tough as possible, because life for black individuals can be very tough and simply dangerous.”
