Important LGBTQ+ Activists RuPaul Andre Charles Full Name: RuPaul Andre Charles Occupation: Drag Queen | Television Judge | Musician | Model | Actor | Author Genres: Dance-Pop | Dance | Disco House | R&B | Euro Dance | Electro House Who is RuPaul? RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960), known mononymously as RuPaul, is an American drag queen, television judge, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race, he[a] has received several accolades, including 11 Primetime Emmy Awards, three GLAAD Media Awards, a Critics' Choice Television Award, two Billboard Music Awards, and a Tony Award. Since 2009, he has produced and hosted the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race and its various spin-offs, such as All Stars, Untucked and Drag Race UK. RuPaul's Drag Race was met with critical acclaim and was praised for "creat[ing] an entertainingly voyeuristic glimpse into the performance art world of drag queens". LGBT Community... RuPaul has been the subject of multiple controversies regarding his comments and actions towards the transgender community. According to Vox, he has a complicated relationship with this community, in part due to differing philosophies: through drag he seeks to mock gender and identity stereotypes, while in his view the trans community takes identity seriously. Nevertheless, RuPaul's Drag Race has featured a number of contestants who are trans women, some of whom made their identity public while competing on the show, including Sonique, Carmen Carrera, Jiggly Caliente, Monica Beverly Hillz, Kenya Michaels and Gia Gunn. Later seasons of the show have included contestants who had already disclosed their trans identity prior to their season beginning. In 2017, Peppermint became the first contestant to compete throughout her season as an openly trans woman and, in 2021, Gottmik was the first to compete as an openly trans man. Other non-conforming gender identities expressed by former contestants include non-binary (Jinkx Monsoon, Adore Delano, Aja, Valentina, Divina de Campo and Ginny Lemon), genderfluid (Courtney Act and Kelly Mantle) and genderqueer (Violet Chachki and Sasha Velour).