Drag Race Contestant Opens Up About Her Anti-Trans Experience in Russia

Russia has been under the human rights microscope for years for its mistreatment of its LGBTQ population, and even more so for the ongoing attacks on gay men in Chechnya.

On last week's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race, contestant Peppermint opened up to the other queens about her frightening experience being detained in the Moscow airport as a trans woman.

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"I was presenting female and my ID does not match," Peppermint told fellow competitor Sasha Velour. "She just kept looking at my ID, and looking at me, and it was clear she was disagreeing with the fact that my ID looked male and I looked female--so she detained me. I was terrified to the point I had to snatch my own wig off my head in the line with all of these people just to prove to her that this was me."

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"There's a lot of gender fear in Russia," said Velour, who spent a combined two and a half years living there. "When I was living in Russia I had to disguise myself. I couldn't be Sasha Velour," she said. "Queer people in Russia are living in an oppressive system." Watch the Drag Race clip, below.