Despite being a long-reining icon in Sydney’s drag scene, Minnie Cooper revealed she felt “isolated” and “dismissed” by the younger queens during her stint on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under 2022.

During an interview with So Dramatic!, Minnie explained that she had “never experienced” ageism before like she did from the other queens on the show and admitted this was the reason why she was “so reactive”.

According to the 50-year-old Queen, watching the show back was extremely difficult as she felt the edit was an “unfair” portrayal of who she is and that the final cut didn’t show “the nuances” in her discussions with other queens.

Minnie Cooper Addresses Her Final On-Screen Feud with Beverly Kills on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under

During her final episode — which was released on August 20 — the 50-year-old queen clashed with fellow contestant Beverly Kills after Minnie spoke about her in a chat with RuPaul Charles.

Minnie believed that Beverly (the youngest queen on the show at just 21) wasn’t showing accountability for being in the bottom two with the previously eliminated contestant Pomara Fifth.

Minnie revealed she felt “isolated” by the younger queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under. Source: Instagram.

“So if we’re going to play that accountability game, we’ve both got to play that. You can’t have your cake and eat it too… But I don’t know if that reads like that. I think it just reads like I’m an a*shole,” she told So Dramatic!.

Minnie Cooper Believes Drag Race Down Under Only Showed One Side of the Story

Minnie also claimed that Drag Race viewers were only shown one side of the story.

The eliminated queen suggested that she and Beverly had “actually apologised [to each other] before Untucked” — the chat segment in which the queens return to the Werk Room after the runway.

“We realised that we were probably coming from the same space,” Minnie explained, jokingly adding: “Her being the oldest and me being the youngest, we were sort of having the same journey. But opposite ends of the scale”.

Minnie found it “frustrating” that the final edit “just showed all the drama” and not “the nuance of what’s happening” behind the scenes.

“It looks like I just threw her under the bus. I actually think that now when I watch it back as well,” she said.

Minnie Cooper Didn’t Expect There To Be an Age Divide on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under

Minnie felt “a divide” between the younger and older queens as soon as she walked into the Werk Room, something she had “never experienced before” in the drag scene.

“The young ones were really a unit, and they were excluding me. There were four or five of them… In a group of 10 people, that’s a lot of people to be excluded by,” Minnie said.

rupauls drag race down under cast
Minnie (far right) felt “excluded” from the younger cast members. Source: Stan.

Minnie claimed the younger queens wouldn’t respond to her when they were off-camera, which made her feel “isolated”.

In turn, she formed closer bonds with Spankie Jackson, 38, Kween Kong, 30, and Ru herself.

“That [connection with RuPaul] was just immediate. I think it’s an age thing,” Minnie said of the 60-year-old drag icon.

She added: “We both have that sort of same sense of humour. It’s the way [we] look at each other and laugh at each other, [and] laugh at yourself even.”

Minnie Cooper Claims She Has Been “Dismissed” When She Tried To Discuss Her Generation’s “Trauma”

Aaron Farley was finding his identity as a gay man in the 80 and 90s.

At the same time, the LGBTQIA+ community was losing “someone every week” amid the HIV-AIDS epidemic, and homosexuality was still illegal in many Australian states.

So Dramatic! Daily podcast

Aaron later debuted as Minnie Cooper in his 30s. At this point in his life, he had already witnessed the hardships the LGBTQIA+ community experienced.

According to the queen, these hardships “paved the way” for younger generations to be able to express themselves openly.

However, during a discussion about gender and pronouns with a younger non-binary identifying person, Minnie was allegedly told that the “trauma of the older generation” was now “irrelevant”.

minnie cooper stan rupaul's drag race down under premiere
Source: Stan.

“I get that’s [gender identity] a really big thing. Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s a big thing,” Minnie revealed to So Dramatic!.

“But the trauma that I grew up [with] being a gay person is ‘irrelevant’? The reason why you’re able to stand there and pick your pronouns is because we went through that trauma.

“I found it really insulting.”

Minnie Cooper Wanted To Have a Larger Discussion About the Impact of the HIV-AIDS Epidemic

Minnie explained this “hurtful” experience was why she was so “reactive” to younger queens on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.

It came to a head when she was reportedly “dismissed” by the cast members in an unreleased scene after she tried to start a conversation about HIV-AIDS during a group chat about “sisterhood”.

 minnie cooper stan rupaul's drag race hiv-aids
Minnie’s red dress during last week’s episode was a tribute to the queens who “were taken too soon by HIV”. Source: Instagram.

Her red dress during last week’s episode was a tribute to the queens who “were taken too soon by HIV”.

Namely, Caroline Clarke, Leggs Galore and Tallulah Bright.

While she was able to mention the three founding Australian queens on the runway briefly, Minnie intended to discuss their legacy in more detail with the other competitors.

“It was these drag queens that paved the way for us. So I could stand on that stage and be able to be a drag performer,” Minnie said.

“I wanted to talk more about their story and their struggles, the HIV epidemic and how people lost someone every week,” she said.

Minnie added: “That conversation was not had because I was dismissed. I think that’s pretty hurtful, not just to me, but the people that they should be showing respect to.”

So Dramatic! acknowledges that this does not mean that any Drag Race Down Under contestants is dismissive of LGBTQIA+ history, however.

Want even more goss? Listen to episode 208 of the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below! 

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