Drag Race UK star opens up about HIV diagnosis
Charity Kase appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race season 3. (Getty)
RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season 3 contestant Charity Kase has opened up about her lived experience with HIV for World AIDS Day.
Charity is a London-based drag artist, who originally grew up in Lancashire, and appeared on RuPaul Drag Race in 2021.
She was described by the BBC as “one of east London’s edgiest drag queens” who is “well-known for her extravagant, outrageous, over-the-top looks”.
Charity was diagnosed with HIV nine years ago in 2015, at the age of 18, which she described as “an extremely shell-shocking and upsetting experience”. But it was drag that helped Charity to process the diagnosis.
Speaking to Pink News, she said: “I think from my experiences that I’ve been through, they just came out in the drag and my taste that I have always had in my aesthetic. I like horror, I like weird, spooky things. I’m an alternative person who’s always drawn to the darkness and the beauty in the darkness.”
“It wasn’t until I’ve been doing it for a few months that I was really looking back at what I was doing and I realised, ‘Wait actually, I’m turning myself into the monster that I’ve been told I am by society’,” she explained.
Charity said she always knew she would want to talk about her HIV status when appearing on Drag Race: “I think if you go on that show, you know you’re going to talk about your trauma. I tried to use it as an opportunity to educate the millions of people sat at home who still have this stereotype of what HIV is in their heads from the adverts that were show in the 80s.”
After speaking about her status on Drag Race, Charity was met with a wave of support.
“The reception that I got from talking about my HIV on Drag Race was amazing. The outpouring of love and the messages from people who it touched, who needed educating… I’m really proud of that experience,” Charity said.
The “trauma” from being diagnosed with HIV stems from the stigma of it, according to the drag star, because taking an antiretroviral tablet each day isn’t what is having a huge impact on her day-to-day life.
“My nose piercing annoys me more than my HIV,” she joked.
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