RuPaul’s Drag Race marked another moment in herstory when Kade Gottlieb, aka Gottmik joined season 13 as the series’ first trans male contestant. He talks to Cliff Joannou about coming out to a religious family in Arizona, being welcomed by the drag community, and how they handle Drag Race drama…

Photography Magnus Hastings Styling Douglas VanLaningham Fashion director Joseph Kocharian

Gottmik wears dress, by Ryunosukeokazaki, shoes, stylist’s own

Gottmik wears full look by Givenchy

It’s a balmy May in 2018 when Attitude first meets Gottmik, although at the time we only know him by his out-of-drag name Kade Gottlieb. We’re gathered in a plush suite at the top of iconic Millennium Biltmore hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, with rails of clothes lining one of the rooms as Kade, whose ‘day job’ as a makeup artist has seen him work with many of the biggest names in entertainment, is setting up their grooming station. It’s as regular a working day as they come for us magazine folk as we await the arrival of singer Adam Lambert for his Attitude cover shoot.

As we natter away, Kade tells us about his passion for drag and his love of performing. As occasional visitors to the city, Attitude fashion director Joseph Kocharian and I aren’t overly familiar with the local queens of LA, so we use the opportunity to get all the inside goss about this vibrant Californian queer scene. Before we know it, Adam has arrived and we engage in the job at hand, losing ourselves in a flurry of photographs.

Fast-forward a couple years, and the next time we hear about Kade, 24, is when the cast for RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 13 drops, and there he is — now aka Gottmik — ready to blow the roof off drag as one of the finest fashion queens to take it to the runway.

The standard on this season is high, and Gottmik is immediately one of the shining stars, wowing the judges from week one. There’s a lot to prove, not just to herself (Kade uses ‘she/her’ pronouns in drag), but to the enthusiastic — and opinionated — Drag Race fanbase, as well as being an ambassador for the growing trans masculine drag performer scene. It certainly helps that Gottmik is at the top of the game, and one of the stand-out queens from the current lineup.

We’re a third of the way through the new season when I catch up with ’Mik on the phone, and our call comes after one of the spiciest episodes ever as temperaments and tantrums flare on and off stage between Kandy Muse and Tamisha Iman. So, between Gottmik’s trailblazing casting and their own journey to discovering their identity, there’s a lot to dive into. 

who I am. I’mwho I am. I’mYou auditioned twice before being cast in the show. Did you ever expect you would be invited back as a contestant?

I did audition twice before, so it’s my third time. And, obviously, I’ve always had it in the back of my mind, wanting to be on the show, and hoping I’d be on. I don’t know if I thought, this is my time for sure, but I feel like that’s why it ended up being my time. Because I submitted a tape and just let it go. And I was like, whatever happens, happens.