Drag Race’s Gottmik may have ‘transitioned earlier’ with greater trans male representation

RuPaul’s Drag Race star Gottmik says she may have transitioned earlier had she had more trans male role models to look up to in the media.

Gottmik – who uses she/her pronouns in drag and he/him out of drag – made history as the first ever trans man to compete on the hit drag reality competition, landing in joint third place in season 13.

The drag performer celebrated a huge milestone in her transition journey in January after legally changing her name and gender. The 27-year-old make up artist shared an image of his ID, where his name was officially listed as Kade Gottlieb and his sex recorded as male.

During a United Talent Agency and GLAAD’s “The Business of Drag” panel with fellow stars Violet Chachki and Monét X Change, Gottmik reflected on her trailblazing career (which has even influenced RuPaul’s perspective on drag) and how much further there is to go.

“Why is there not way more trans representation in the media – trans men, specifically? Trans men out there and talking about their journeys?” Gottmik said during the panel, according to Variety.

“I’m like, I should do more s**t out of drag, because I feel like there should be way more trans guys out there talking about how hard it is. And I see so many amazing trans women. I’m so inspired by their stories. I’m like, ‘where are these trans guys telling me their stories?’ I want to be inspired by that too.”

While Gottmik is “honoured” to be one of the people inspiring trans men, she hopes to empower even more people to tell their stories.

“I’m really excited to keep breaking these doors down because there’s so many amazing trans men stories, queer stories across the board of every gender and sexuality spectrum that needs to be shed light on,” Gottmik continued.

“If I had that [in the past], I would have probably transitioned so much earlier, so I always want to be loud and proud and out there.”

Transmasc+ representation across the media industry is slowly expanding. Sex Education season four featured a touching plot line including non-binary transmasc character Cal (Dua Saleh), while on the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks Tylan Grant’s character Phoenix Hathaway recently came out as a trans man.

In August, author Rowan Jetté Knox was met with uplifting support from the literary community after coming out as trans on social media.