RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 cast face ‘hate crime’ in Las Vegas, star says
The cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 experienced a ‘hate crime’ while in Las Vegas, Suzie Toot has revealed (Photo by Denise Truscello/Getty Images for MTV)
RuPaul’s Drag Race star Suzie Toot has revealed that the top six of season seventeen faced a ‘hate crime’ in Las Vegas – and Onya Nurve and Lana Ja’Rae went off on the perpetrators.
As RuPaul likes to say, the world has never needed the magic of drag more. That much is clear with events at a global and political level targeting the LGBTQ+ community on a number of battlegrounds – with politicians like Donald Trump and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to thank.
The air of unease trickles right down to interpersonal exchanges on the street, with the top six of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 (Onya Nurve, Lexi Love, Jewels Sparkles, Sam Star, Suzie Toot and Lana Ja’Rae) experiencing that first hand while doing press in Las Vegas, Nevada recently.
Speaking to Pride.com while attending the RuPaul’s Drag Race Live 1000th Show (17 March), Suzie explained to reporter Ricky Cornish what exactly went down as the queens were posing in front of the iconic Las Vegas sign.
.@suzietoot says @lanajarae and @OnyaNurve stood up to a homophobe after they experienced a hate crime in Las Vegas. 🥺 #DragRace pic.twitter.com/JPAcZ9ATOU
— Ricky Cornish (@rickycornish) March 20, 2025
“We did get hate crimed! Suzie Toot can’t catch a break!” the theatre queen told Cornish.
“We were taking pictures in front of the … [Las Vegas] sign,” she explained, “…and as we were taking pictures, somebody went, ‘Boo! Boo! Not in front of the children!'”
The queens didn’t take it lying down, though, as the Drag Race queen explained that Lana and Onya both confronted the heckler.
“And so Onya and Lana, b*tch, went right up to them and said, ‘What did you guys say?'”
Suzie added, “Speak up when something f**ked up is going on!”
For her part, Lana, who is the drag daughter of season 15’s Luxx Noir London, commented underneath a clip of the interview on X, writing, “And I’d do it again! Talk s**t get HIT especially when it comes to people talking bad about my sisters.”
Period.
New episodes of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 air on Fridays on MTV in the US and WOWPresents Plus internationally.
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