RuPaul's Drag Race season 14 star Jasmine Kennedie stood up for herself after being harassed and followed by a strange man on the subway. Now, Kennedie is ready to share a few updates along with even more specific details.
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Kennedie, a drag performer who came out as a trans woman while filming Drag Race, faced a harrowing experience where a man who identified himself as a Donald Trump supporter invaded her personal space, seemingly followed her into the subway, and allegedly shouted anti-LGBTQ+ slurs at her.
The Drag Race alum took her story to social media, and a flood of fans/internet sleuths helped her identify the man who allegedly harassed her.
In a new interview with Out's sibling publication, PRIDE, Kennedie explained that she was "sort of shocked" after that experience. On the other hand, she added: "When it comes to conflict, I don't necessarily back down."
On Monday, Kennedie shared an Instagram reel narrating her experience and showing video footage of the man who she identified as making her feel unsafe. After posting, it didn't take long for fans to flood Kennedie's DMs with information shared by people who allegedly recognized the guy seen in the videos.
According to Kennedie, a few people in the DMs identified themselves as coworkers of this man seen in the Instagram reel, noting that he worked at a gym in New York City. After contacting the gym and filing a formal complaint, Kennedie's followers started sending messages to that gym and warned them about the incident. Within 24 hours of her initial post, the man was allegedly fired from his job.
"A job loss is horrible for anybody, but if you're working for an LGBTQ+ friendly gym, I don't think that's the type of rhetoric that should be spewed around by one of the employees," Kennedie told PRIDE.
Kennedie revealed that she felt "empowered" and "vindicated" once this person was allegedly terminated from his job. "I didn't think there would be immediate action," she observed. "But it gave me a little bit of a sense of joy in the world that we're living in right now that there is still hope for people to stand up for us."
This entire incident took place on Sunday night, as the 25-year-old performer was making her way home — still in drag — from a show. Because there were no seats left on that particular subway station, Kennedie made herself comfortable by sitting on the ground. Unfortunately, that was when this stranger approached her and sat down "very, very close" to her.
Kennedie explained that she felt immediately uncomfortable in his presence, which prompted her to stand up and go elsewhere. Alas, Kennedie noted that this was only the beginning of listening to that man allegedly spewing anti-LGBTQ+ hate and following her — even as she boarded a train.
Between the footage shared on Instagram and Kennedie's own account, this man repeatedly told her things like, "This is Trump's America," "Trump is still your daddy," and called her the F-slur.
"If [he was] going to use the correct slur on me, it would have been tr**ny, but he didn't. I think, clearly, he does not understand the range of slurs in this community," Kennedie joked, using her signature brand of sarcasm to deal with a dark situation.
Though Kennedie was indeed scared, she made the split-second decision to stand up for herself. She didn't want "to let someone push me in a corner and make me feel smaller," particularly after doing so much work to feel confident about herself.
"I just matched his energy, essentially. I think, in this time, a lot of right-wing [people], or the MAGA side, wants us to be in fear. I didn't want to back down and let him have that satisfaction," Kennedie said. "He would have been relishing it, and bragging to people later that night, that he told off a trans woman."
While the experience was scary and forced Kennedie into a position where she felt like she had to stand up for herself, she was not alone in this fight. In the footage, it's clear that people around her at the subway station — and also on the train — were quick to give her backup and support.
Namely, a person can be heard in the Instagram video trying to help Kennedie by asking that man to leave the subway car that he entered while allegedly stalking Kennedie. The Drag Race star added that, later, she found out that this supportive person was also a part of the LGBTQ+ community and had their own experience with the same man — who, they claim, also had an uncomfortable experience with that stranger but didn't get the chance to stand up to him.
"The guy who was helping me told me, 'I was too scared to say anything, but when I saw you speaking up, I thought it was my reason to come over and make sure you were OK," she explained.
Kennedie is feeling stronger after standing up for herself and getting support from the community. Not only did she have people step up during the incident, but her followers and fellow Drag Race sisters also offered her plenty of support in the aftermath. Daya Betty, Amanda Tori Meating, Alyssa Hunter, Aurora Matrix, and Deja Skye all posted supportive comments on her reel, for instance.
"People think that they could just walk over us, and treat us like [that], and nothing's going to come out of it," Kennedie said. "Or they think that we're gonna be in fear. I felt like it was my duty to stand up, and give this guy a stark reality check: 'If you mess with someone, it doesn't matter if you think they're insignificant. You do have to deal with the repercussions. It's not something that should be dealt with lightly.'"
While Kennedie was "lucky to kind of skate through" similar situations in the past, she shared her perspective that anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment has been rising. "I've noticed people are feeling a little bit more emboldened to either make comments, or stare, or make people in the LGBTQ+ community a little bit more uncomfortable."
Nonetheless, Kennedie hasn't lost hope. "I've gotten hundreds of DMs and comments on social media, and support from everybody — not just in the community, but allies as well, that see us and [can] defend us," she said. "It is very touching and very sweet to know that this has touched so many people."
