Venus D-Lite wanted to be Madonna. Well, not literally be Madonna, but be what Madonna stood for, as Venus told Joseph Shepherd in the latest episode of Exposed: Dragged Out. "I wanted to be her as an artist," she says. "Just very outspoken ... and about being yourself and not being ashamed about it. If you're not outspoken, shit stays the same. Had World of Wonder and RuPaul hadn't taken a risk 10,000 years ago, we wouldn't be here, me and you, talking about drag."
And Venus is helping change the world in this conversation itself, speaking out about her HIV-positive diagnosis, and the stigma surrounding the virus in the drag community and beyond. "It's all about education," Venus says. "You can live a really normal life and continue to be you ... You deserve to be happy. You don't deserve to be depressed."
And there's even more to the conversation — during the brand-new episode, Venus talks about her not-so-great experience during Season 3 of the series, the fight you didn't realize she started, why she turned Drag Race down when approached during Season 1, and first first drag experience in front of RuPaul herself.
Listen to the brand-new episode, sponsored by ZocDoc, below, or on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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