Hey, RuPaul: Stop asking rural NC drag queen Heidi N Closet to change her name
Ramseur, North Carolina.
I can’t say it was on my list of places to visit before I die. With less than 2,000 residents, it’s probably not exactly a tourist destination. In fact, I had never heard of the tiny town in between Raleigh and Charlotte.
But that was before I met Heidi.
Last week, I sat down to catch up on the newest season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and realized I had never known real joy before meeting national treasure Heidi N Closet, a drag queen competing for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar on the VH1 series.
Because Heidi is the truth we all need during these trying times, I totally forgot about not being able to leave my house because of the coronavirus pandemic.
There’s more chickens than people in Ramseur, she told us.
And she’ll be taking that $100,000 cash prize when she won the crown at the end, “because poverty.”
The most frustrating part of this season of “Drag Race” are the judge’s insistence that Heidi N Closet change her name. RuPaul told her in one episode that it’s hard to say. They’ve suggested Heidi Ho instead, among other names.
For someone rooting for Heidi N Closet, I hope she never changes her name. To me, it represents more than a fun play on words. It symbolizes the struggle LGBTQ have in coming out every single day across the U.S. It represents the place she calls home, where men she’s been intimate with aren’t open about their sexuality.
For Heidi, it’s a sign of progress of bravery in rural North Carolina.
Heidi has quite the resume: She’s only been doing drag for a few years after seeing a show with her transgender sister. Heidi has also traveled to Charlotte and Raleigh to perform, according to the Fayetteville Observer. In 2019, the newspaper reported, Heidi was named the winner of the North Carolina Entertainer of the Year Pageant.
And whether she knows it or not, every word that comes from Heidi’s mouth is comedy. I’ve never laughed so hard in my life. After her first runway appearance, she had told the judges she had to go to the emergency room after an allergic reaction, likely caused by food.
When the judges asked her if there was anything new or strange she had eaten, she simply replied, “kale.”
Kale makes me sick too, sis.
It’s Heidi’s words, dance moves and loveable personality that has maken America fall in love with her. She’s even been dubbed the “heart” of this season by Out.com.
But more importantly, Heidi transports me back to my hometown of Kiln, Mississippi.
Best known for football legend Brett Favre, I grew up in the cow pastures of Kiln baling hay with my parents and meeting the Domino’s delivery driver in the “heart of downtown” at the gas station 15 miles away because we lived outside the delivery zone.
I didn’t have chickens, but I remember being a confused 12-year-old boy, crying when my favorite cow, Bertha, was dying in the field next to my trampoline.
For someone from rural America, Heidi N Closet is the voice we need on “Drag Race,” a show that has brought the drag community into the national spotlight and has given a voice for an often ignored or misunderstood community.
When we think of the LGBTQ community, we think of New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. We don’t think of places like Ramseur, North Carolina or Kiln, Mississippi, where expressing yourself through art and identity could put a target on your back.
To RuPaul, supermodel of the world, please let Heidi N Closet keep her namesake and keep sashaying down the runway to the “Drag Race” finale.
Justin Mitchell is an audience growth editor for McClatchy and supports the News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. He is the host of “Out Here in America,” a podcast by McClatchy that explores what it’s like being LGBTQ in America’s rural communities.
This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 2:59 PM.
