NOT MANY PEOPLE HAVE THE GUTS TO TURN DOWN THE CHANCE TO APPEAR ON RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE. BUT THAT’S JUST WHAT PEPPERMINT DID EIGHT YEARS AGO. SHE ALSO HAD THE COURAGE, HAVING BEEN SELECTED AS A CONTESTANT THIS YEAR, TO COME OUT AS A TRANS WOMAN ON THE SHOW BEFORE ALMOST WINNING

WORDS: MICHAEL SEGALOV

RuPaul’s Drag Race has become the holy grail for drag queens, offering unparalleled exposure, a forum in which to perfect the craft of drag, and the chance to win cold hard cash. But back in 2009, when the first season of the show aired on Logo in America, Peppermint turned down the chance to compete.

“It was easy for me to say no to some of the early producers of Drag Race,” she tells me without a hint of regret. “I was already the first drag artist to have a music video on Logo, it felt like such an accomplishment. Why would I then be on a reality show?”

It would take eight years for Peppermint, now 37, to finally make her entrance into the workroom, a period during which both she and the show went on their own journeys.

I’m early to meet Peppermint in a small coffee shop in Upper Manhattan, the part of town she has called home for two decades.

“New York City is my favourite city in the world, and Harlem is my favourite place in New York City,” she says.

Peppermint had only visited New York twice before moving to the city, the first time aged 15 when her high school guidance counsellor took her to Broadway to watch the original cast perform Rent. “It was life-changing,” she says. “The story was obviously poignant and it spoke directly to me.”

Back at home, life wasn’t quite so wonderful. Born in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the only child of a single mother, life was often a struggle. “We weren’t rich, things were tough for my mum,” she reveals. “She did her best to hide that from me so I was pretty happy most of the time.”