RuPaul is the latest celebrity to get stamped into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the first drag queen ever bestowed with the honour.
“As a kid we'd come up here to Hollywood Boulevard. I’d look at all the stars and dream that one day, I could be one of the stars on Hollywood Boulevard,” he told the crowd. “I feel like I'm being knighted.”
“This is absolutely the most important moment in my professional career.”
The former club kid, musician, actor, and hallowed queen is credited with bringing drag culture to the mainstream with his namesake TV series Drag Race, which has been running since 2009. His presence in pop culture has facilitated conversations about gender, sexuality, and identity across decades – though recently he came under fire for comments made about trans and cis queens. Contestants on Drag Race have spoken candidly about trans identity, LGBT inequality and violence, HIV/Aids, and complex family relationships in its nine seasons, broadcast to millions.
Ru was presented the honour by actress Jane Fonda, whose role as Barbarella and LIFE magazine cover in 1968 inspired his own form of drag and career.
As the BBC reports, Fonda said presenting RuPaul with the accolade was “one of the big pleasures of my life” and that it “should be at least three sizes bigger than any other star”.
She added: “He created an industry that has given hundreds and hundreds of jobs and dreams to so many.”