Controversy surrounding Heidi Klum
editProSieben announced Queen of Drags on the 26th of June via a Facebook post, including the participating judges. However, the uploaded picture only included Heidi Klum, highlighting her. Her place as a main judge on a show about queer contents, with queer topics and queer contestants was highly critized by the German LGBTQ-Community. In protest multiple online petitions were started.
Even before the shows announcement Jurassica Parka commented for the Siegessäule (a berlin based queer magazine): "It is sad, it is pathetic - actually it really is a scandal" ("Es ist traurig, es ist erbärmlich – eigentlich ist es tatsächlich ein Skandal."). The Tageszeitung (A german newsletter) especially criticised how Klum critiqued and treated the contestants of Germany's Next Topmodel. According to the newsletter it objectifies and ridicules the contestants while pushing very restrictive body ideals; "Germany‘s Next Topmodel is all about devaluating, humiliating and pitting contestants against eachother. Rupaul‘s Drag Race is about empowerment, subversive faboulesness and solidarity" ("Bei GNTM geht es also um Abwertung, Beschämung und Konkurrenz. Bei RPDR geht es um Empowerment, subversive Fabelhaftigkeit und Solidarität."). For that reason it would be hard to imagine she can give the Drag Artist competing the necessary respect. On the day of the announcement the German Crossdressing artist Margot Schlönzke and Ryan Stecken started a petition on change.org, highlighting the problematic of the show not being hosted by a queer person but by someone who "has no idea of drag, its rich history, the lifestlye, its identity, its culture, of the drag scene, of the industry as a whole." Aside from critiquing the host however, they genuinly welcomed that a show with such a format is coming to Germany. Olivia Jones, a famous German dragqueen, adressed the format in her open letter to the topic: "For the first time ever a lot of drag queens in Germany are getting their own prime time show on a major German TV channel. A lot of people have unsuccessfully fought for this for years. In the end, it took Heidi Klum being brave enough to give drag queens a big platform on Germany’s Next Topmodel and by using her influence to campaign for drag queen to have their own show. Finally, German drag artists can also show everyone that they don’t have to hide behind their American colleagues. Finally we can show just how incredibly diverse our drag scene is.” („Den Durchbruch hat am Ende Heidi Klum gebracht, in dem sie bei Germany’s Next Topmodel den Mut hatte, Drag Queens eine große Plattform zu geben und in dem sie sich danach für ein eigenes Drag Queen Format stark gemacht hat. Endlich können auch deutsche Drags mal allen zeigen, dass sie sich hinter ihren amerikanischen Kolleginnen nicht verstecken müssen und wir eine unglaublich vielfältige Szene haben.“)
In a statement Klum announced that she has loved and admired drag culture for years. Additionally she addressed the critique in the first episode of the show and defended herself: “I’m open for everything. Tolerant of every human” („Ich bin offen für alles. Tolerant für alle Menschen.“). However she found the reaction of the LGBTQ-Community to her rather intolerant: “Because I’m hetero, white and a woman. That is totally mean.” („Weil ich hetero bin, weiß bin und eine Frau bin. Das ist total gemein.“).