I don’t know about you, but the knowledge that RuPaul is fracking has haunted my consciousness since March 2020, when the drag magnate revealed that he was “leasing mineral rights to oil companies” on his husband’s Wyoming ranch during an appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air. Though he tried to keep his wording vague, Twitter sleuths and media outlets all but confirmed that based on the location of the property, RuPaul is indeed fracking.
Something about the confluence of this Ruveal and the beginning of lockdown in New York City made for an unholy, permanent brainworm. I’m far from alone: the phrase “RuPaul is fracking” in and of itself quickly became a Gay Twitter meme, those three words serving as shorthand for the surreal, doomsday-esque conditions that plagued us all in those early days of the pandemic. (Some pun intended.)
Four years later, RuPaul is still trying to dodge the fracking allegations, most recently in a profile in the New Yorker, aptly titled “RuPaul Doesn’t See How That’s Any of Your Business.” About midway through the lengthy article, journalist Ronan Farrow writes that RuPaul “remains defiantly annoyed about the matter.” (And honestly, bless him for following up on that.)
In apparent response to Farrow pressing him about the fracking, RuPaul responded, “Do you buy gas? Before you point the finger, smell it first, bitch.” Farrow noted that RuPaul sounded “weary,” with the queen adding, “There’s no combination of words I can put together that would soothe the mob.”
First, let me state the obvious: while there is “no ethical consumption under capitalism” or whatever, there is a huge difference between filling up your car as an individual and directly facilitating an incredibly destructive and hazardous fuel extraction method. If you’re unfamiliar, fracking enables companies to extract reserves of natural gas from impermeable rock formations. They accomplish this by blasting these rock formations with “large quantities of water, chemicals, and sand” until the rock is cracked, according to the environmental advocacy organization National Resources Defense Council.
This is, to put it lightly, terrible for the environment and for literally all living beings, using massive amounts of water, contaminating the drinking water that remains, pumping the air chock-full of hazardous chemicals, and much, much more. Ru has certainly made enough money off of the dozen-and-a-half Drag Race spinoffs to not have to “resort” to this. But I guess someone has to pay for the $10,000 custom handcrafted La Cornue range in his kitchen that almost certainly gets no usage. And hey, it might as well be us and also all future generations of human, plant, and animal life on this planet.
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