RuPaul: Drag Icon, Fracking Baron

The legendary RuPaul is a true multihyphenate star. Model. Recording artist. Actor. Producer. Host. Author. Fracking baron. He's just so talented! There's just nothing he can't do, and that includes releasing an astounding amount of methane into the Earth's atmosphere by leasing his thousands of acres of Wyoming farmland to companies who have no qualms about ruining the earth and poisoning water.

RuPaul went on NPR's Fresh Air where host Terry Gross asked him about his 60,000 acres of ranch land in Wyoming. Ru said he and his husband have leased some of the lands to other farmers for cattle grazing. As he went on, he slipped in some sly coded phrases. The first was that he leases the "mineral rights" of his land to oil companies, which might sound like he's letting GNC mine vitamins in his backyard but it's much less nutritious than that. And then he slipped in another when he said that he "sold water" to oil companies. Those are both ways of saying that you're letting energy companies frack on your land without having to say it because you are fully aware of the fully-earned atrocious stigma attached to it.

A guy on Twitter named Rory Solomon heard all of the telltale codewords and did some research. With the help of a website called Fractracker.org, he found that Ru's ranch is so filled with oil and/or gas wells that the satellite view tracking it with little yellow dots looks like God spilled mustard across Wyoming.

On the one hand, it's disappointing to see that such an iconic figure is profiting from the destruction of the earth and the poisoning of rural communities. But on the other hand, it's nice to see that a gay black drag queen can be just as selfishly environmentally destructive as any old white dude. Progress!

Luis can be found on Twitter and Facebook. Check out his regular contributions to Macaulay Culkin's BunnyEars.com and his "Meditation Minute" segments on the Bunny Ears podcast. And now you can listen to the first episode on Youtube!