Drag Race champion Sasha Colby wanted to be naked in her final lip-sync smackdown to “normalise” the “trans body”.
The grande finale of the series’ recent 15th season saw the top four contestants – Sasha, Anetra, Luxx Noir London and Mistress Isabelle Brooks – perform solo numbers before the top two competed in a lip-sync showdown to Amii Stewart’s disco classic Knock on Wood.
In classic Sasha and Anetra fashion, the powerhouse performers delivered a variety of fierce tricks, splits and flips, with the former stripping layers of clothing to ruveal her near-nude body.
After RuPaul crowned Sasha as America’s Next Drag Superstar, she referenced the recent onslaught of bills targeting the trans community in the United States as she told the audience: “This goes to every trans person past, present and future because we are not going anywhere.”
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly after her win, Sasha said it was a “specific choice to be naked in these times”.
“I wanted them to see what they’re trying to eradicate. Because they’re probably eradicating it because they’re attracted to it. The only way you can feel upset with something is if it evokes a strong feeling in you. Usually that feeling is lust hidden under hate. That’s what they’re uncomfortable with,” she explained.
Sasha continued to say that she still gets “clocked” as a trans woman, recalling a recent incident when someone called her “a man” in New York City.
“It wasn’t because anyone else thought I looked like a man, it’s because someone [who] got attracted to me got the dirt that I was trans, and that made them feel so uncomfortable that they had to say I’m a man. Every time they do that is them showing their own cards,” she said.
“With this legislation and everything happening, for me to represent Drag Race and such a huge conglomerate like MTV and be exactly what [conservatives] want to eradicate is so powerful. I understand the eyes on me, which is why I wanted to be naked. I wanted to normalize this trans body!”
Sasha became the fourth consecutive trans contestant to win RuPaul’s Drag Race after Kylie Sonique Love (All Stars 6), Willow Pill (season 14) and Jinkx Monsoon (All Stars 7). She also made herstory as the first trans woman of colour and former Miss Continental to win the series.
In her GAY TIMES cover story, Sasha said the franchise “needed someone” like her: “It was my responsibility to represent every trans girl that I look up to and the trans girls that aren’t here anymore. It was a level of, ‘Yes, I would love to be on the show’ but it was very much, ‘I need to do this for us.’”
On her post-Drag Race future, Sasha added: “Anything is possible. It’s like I rubbed a lamp, Ru’s popped out and said, ‘What’s your biggest dream? What do you want?’ Win, lose, draw – as pageant as this answer is! – I already won because all I needed was my foot in the door.
“I’m conquering a lot of things I didn’t think I could do through Drag Race. It’s allowed me to dream even bigger for myself now. I’m so excited that things will happen.”
You can read Sasha Colby’s interview with GAY TIMES here.
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