[Billet] “Drag Race France” : “Merci Nicky Doll”

While opening this Thursday, July 10, on France 2 and France.TV, the first season All Stars of Drag Race FranceXavier, a stubborn reader, wanted to send this open letter to the iconic host of the show, the Queen Nicky Doll.

Dear Nicky,

A few days ago, in my stepfather’s living room, TV was on a football match, or perhaps rugby … whatever! At the PUB break, a spot arises. Brilliant colors, wigs, sublime outfits: Drag Race France All Stars Announced on France 2. in prime time. On a public channel.

My stepfather, leaning on the coffee table, groaned in his beard. Nothing front, just one “Pfff” Disapproduction, a frown that meant everything.

But I smiled. Because in 30 seconds, you and the Queens have entered his world, without asking for permission. And that is already a victory.

I returned to France in 2023 after sixteen years in London. It was there that I learned to breathe, to love freely, to get married, to start a family with my husband. There, I healed, a little, injuries from my adolescence spent in the provinces.

When I was a child, LGBTQ+ people on TV were rare, caricatured or tragic. Either AIDS victims or mockery objects. Never heroes. Never artists. Never models. So to exist, you had to leave. Me, it was London in 2007. Because staying, it was suffocating. Even sink… or worse.

So see today Drag Race France On public service, it’s not just entertainment. It is a revenge on invisibility. It is a hope transmitted to those who are still growing today in places where “faded” remains a daily insult, and where coming out is an act of courage, even survival.

What you have succeeded with Drag Race France is immense. You were able to resume the DNA of the original format while anchor it deeply in our French culture and in our realities. Here, we are talking about province, racism, religion, HIV, family, transidentity, rejection, but also beauty, culture, pride, and queer art in all its splendor.

You have not only set up a program: you have created a space of care, listening, fire and joy.

And you did it even though the climate becomes more and more hostile. While Trump is back to the assault on LGBTQ+rights, JK Rowling is touring the sets to deny the existence of trans people, and even here, in France, homophobic attacks are constantly increasing. It takes courage to stand in this context. It takes even more to continue wearing wigs, heels, feathers and values ​​of love in the midst of cynicism.

I know you were attacked. I know that you received threats, especially after your remarkable passage at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games. And yet you continue. You go to the sets, you speak, you explain, you educate, you refuse to apologize for existing. You are there, bright, strong, funny, sensitive.

And through you, thousands of young people are finally represented other than in pain. Through you, stepfathers growl in their beard.

And I smile.

Thank you for that. Thank you for this light in my living room.

Thank you for the one you light in so many other homes, sometimes hostile, sometimes loving, often between the two.

And thank you for reminding us, week after week, that our existence deserves more than tolerance: it deserves the celebration.

With all my gratitude,

A Pope, a Mari, an invisible ancient.

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Crédit Photo: Stefanos Kyriazis / Nurphoto via AFP

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