RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Q opens up about HIV-positive diagnosis

After a shock elimination two weeks ago, RuPaul’s Drag Race had a rare but not unprecedented no-elimination last week. Seven queens remained at the start of the most recent episode, among them Kansas City, Missouri-based contestant Q. She may be towards the bottom of the alphabet, but Q is definitely among the top queens headed towards the finale. Q is multi-talented, but what’s really been an advantage for her this season — including leading her to two wins — has been her fashion skills. (How queens still think they can compete on Drag Race without knowing how to sew is beyond me.) On last Friday’s episode we got to learn even more about Q; while discussing her look for the upcoming “Drag Con 1980” themed runway, Q opened up about her HIV-positive diagnosis, to overwhelming support from her sisters and the judges:

Friday’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race was an emotional one for contestant Q.

While preparing for the runway, the 26-year-old entertainer from Kansas City, Missouri opened up about her health, revealing that she was diagnosed as HIV-positive two years earlier.

PEOPLE has an exclusive clip from the season 16 episode. Q, who has been celebrated on the show for her fashions, was motivated to discuss the topic while putting together her look.

“I am doing something very sentimental for the runway today,” she said. “It’s inspired by the generation of gay people that we lost to the AIDS epidemic in the ‘80s. So it’s really, really special to me.”

Coming to terms with the news that she had contracted the human immunodeficiency virus wasn’t easy for Q at first. “When I first got my diagnosis I felt like really lost and I felt, like, super alone,” she told fellow queen Plane Jane. “I tested positive when I was 24. I was mostly scared about how I was going to be treated by family and people around me who don’t understand it because it is so stigmatized.”

Her fears came true with some. “You know, people have said really awful and nasty things to me and almost de-humanizing me,” she recalled.

“It’s crazy how much people with HIV have to deal with. I’ve been treated differently by like, health care providers,” added Q. “I think it’s so important to have queer people in health care. You really feel that difference in care between those providers.”

Joked Plane Jane: “Do you hear that gay people? Stop doing drag and start going to medical school!”

Q, for her part, said on Friday that she’s come a long way from the fear she initially felt.

“I’m here, I’m on Drag Race, I know I’m living my dreams,” she said. “I know I have a loving husband that really supports and loves me, no matter what.”

[From People]

The look was really well done, and perfect for the theme. Q wore a skirted ‘80s power suit with a Keith Haring-inspired print, accented with large red piping meant to symbolize the AIDS ribbon. Although she stunned on the runway and killed in the challenge, she didn’t win this week (and did not have much of a poker face to hide her disappointment). I hope she shrugs it off, though, cause I still say she’s gonna be in the final four. This was the second time this season that Q has really given me the feels while sharing her most vulnerable truths. The first was when she described taking refuge in her high school’s theater during lunch hour, because her family never had enough money to send her to school with food. That image really stuck with me, as does her recent account of health care professionals judging her during treatment. That is despicable. So yes, it is important to have queer people in those positions setting an empathic standard. But that shouldn’t stop us from expecting non-queer health care providers to do better by their patients, too.