Gia Gunn and Leona Winter competed in the Chilean spinoff of RuPaul's Drag Race — which, unlike more recent spinoffs, follows a very different format from the original show — titled The Switch Drag Race. The two queens faced off in the second season of The Switch: Gia went home in 10th place, whereas Leona won the season.
With the announcement that Leona had returned to compete on season 3 of Drag Race France, fans resurfaced a video of Gia and Leona fighting during The Switch season 2. The clip starts with Gia saying out loud, "Tell me what you want to, I know that I'm everything."
Leona responds, "Gia, don't humiliate others."
"You too, French," Gia claps back. "You think you're pretty and feminine while dressing like a woman."
Leona replies, "Yes, I feel much more feminine and pretty than you with that face of a Chinese clown."
This is when Gia stood up (figuratively and literally) for herself and walked toward Leona. "You think because you can sing, my love, that you're going to win over me?" Gia asks.
When Leona says that she's much more than just a good singer, Gia says, "What, with beauty… which you lack? You lack beauty, attitude, a character… you're just a singer dressed as a woman."
But that's not all! Another resurfaced video from The Switch Drag Race season 2 — which aired in March 2018 — showed Leona performing in full blackface during one of the show's challenges.
As seen below, Leona performs "ABC" by The Jackson 5 during that number.
After these videos gained traction on social media, Leona — who is currently competing in the third season of Drag Race France — took to her Instagram stories to comment on the situation. She wrote:
"I've received many messages and I want to express myself following the publication of an extract from a show filmed eight years ago. I was a contestant on the show The Switch season 2 in Chile. During a challenge imposed by production, we were instructed to dress up and perform a song by The Jackson 5. We all performed."
Leona added, "Production should never have asked us to do this challenge. I regret not having refused it at the risk of being disqualified from the competition. Blackface is a racist practice. This is unacceptable even in the context of a competition. I would like to apologize to all the people I may have offended or shocked."
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