RuPaul has long been an outspoken supporter of liberal politics, but fans are scratching their heads over a recent NPR interview in which the host of RuPaul’s Drag Race seemingly admitted to allowing companies to frack on the 60,000-acre Wyoming ranch he owns with his husband Georges LeBar — a decidedly not eco-friendly practice.
Fresh Air host Terry Gross asked the drag queen what he does with such a massive property, and the answer sounded a whole lot like fracking.
“Well, a modern ranch, 21st century ranch, is really land management,” RuPaul told the host. “It is — you lease the mineral rights to oil companies. And you sell water to oil companies. And then you lease the grazing rights to different ranchers. So it’s land management.”
After listening to the segment, Rory Solomon, a PhD candidate from NYU, looked into it via the nonprofit FracTracker and public records and confirmed that RuPaul’s ranch is in fact a fracking hot-spot.
HOLD UP. (Non-COVID content) @RuPaul was just on @NPRFreshAir and shared that he & his partner own 60,000 acres in Wyoming & they "lease mineral rights … and sell water to oil companies" and Terry Gross did not follow up with one question about the fact that RuPaul is FRACKING pic.twitter.com/KJanHgi0xI
— Rory Solomon (@rorys) March 15, 2020
“I know RuPaul has been a really inspirational figure for a lot of queer people, and has inspired many to engage in transgressive gender performance, but beyond improving the representation of marginalized folks in pop culture, it’s important to recognize that these celebrities rarely embody our broader political aspirations,” Solomon told Earther.
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