Homophobia is alive and well, unfortunately.
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season one winner The Vivienne was attacked by a homophobe in June 2023 while inside a McDonald’s restaurant. At the time, the All Stars 7 star took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to report that a man had started a confrontation with her that was filled with hate speech.
During an interview with This Morning, The Vivienne looked back at that situation and shared how it has affected her in the long term, saying:
“It was in broad daylight. I wasn’t in drag. I was getting a burger… and what happened, happened. But the police were fantastic, but it did kind of shake me up a little bit. I’ve always been, from a young age, so confident and didn’t care what anyone thought. I found myself, even after the attack, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s fine, I’ve dealt with this for years,’ but then going on a train and hiding around a corner, it did shake me up a bit.”
“We all think, ‘Oh, we’re strong, and we can get through it,’” the Dancing on Ice alum added. “But then a week later, I was getting the train up to London, and a big group of lads who had been out [showed up] and I found myself for the first time in my life, ever, [hiding] around the corner and [waiting] for the train. And it was in that moment I thought, ‘Wow, that has really affected me.’”
In hindsight, however, The Vivienne is somewhat glad that this happened to her – and not to a queer teenager who’s still figuring themselves out and could have their entire life affected by a confrontation like this. The OG champion of Drag Race UK is clearly still going through it, but it could’ve been even worse if it happened to people who weren’t strong enough to stand up for themselves.
We love Viv and hope that she can recover from this traumatic incident very soon.