Michelle Visage first realised her voice made a difference while roaming the halls of South Plainfield High School in New Jersey.
The BBC star recalled “unknowingly” becoming an ally as she defended a young classmate who was being bullied and in that moment recognised that her “loud voice” could “impact people for the better”.
Almost four decades on from that ‘aha’ moment, she has continued to use her voice for good as a long-time ally for the LGBTQ+ community and has now teamed up Virgin Atlantic as the airline updated their gender identity policy.
In September, the airline removed the requirement for its people to wear gendered uniform options, allowing its crew, pilots, and ground team the option to choose which of the iconic uniforms, designed by Vivienne Westwood, best represents them.
Visage told the Standard that it’s imperative to move the conversation forward.
“We’re heading into 2023 and the fact that we still have to do these things to open people’s minds and understand what it’s like to not live in the binary is pretty crazy,” she shared.
“But this is how we educate people, we do it through fun, we do it through fashion and we do it through love.”
And while Visage’s allyship is always at the forefront, you would be foolish to not recognise her influence on UK pop culture, having enjoyed memorable stints on Celebrity Big Brother and Strictly Come Dancing – not to mention her long-standing judging role on RuPaul’s Drag Race.
When she appeared on 2015’s CBB, she was placed in the Borehamwood compound alongside Katie Price, managed to humanise Katie Hopkins, and famously locked horns with Perez Hilton.
Looking back on her time in the house, the TV star, who finished fifth that year, only had fond memories despite the polarity between contestants’ opinions and admitted she’d do it all over again if she could.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat,” she told us. “It was so difficult when I was in it, but I had the most incredible time and I thought it was so fun, so funny, so ridiculous.
“I humanised Katie Hopkins, which was interesting and no longer a thing, but I enjoyed my time in that house and I’m so happy it’s coming back. I loved it.”
So, with a new instalment of the former Channel 4 series coming to ITV in 2023, what does Visage want from the reboot? A show brought “back to the beginning” – and a familiar face to front it - Rylan Clark.
She shared: “[Rylan] 100%. Who would be better? Honestly, there’s nobody who knows it better than Rylan. There’s nobody better to [front it].
“[The show] needs to go back to what it was when we were just a fly on the wall. That was the fun part about Big Brother…. I think you need to go back and let the people do what they came there to do. That’s why they get hired to go in. Let them do it.
“That’s what I would do if it were my show, I’d say scale it back, bring it back to the beginning and let it go.”
Four years after her CBB stint, Visage went on to impress Strictly Come Dancing viewers when she was paired with professional dancer Giovanni Pernice, a time she refers to as “the best experience of my life”.
And being a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Visage said she can sympathise with Strictly’s head judge Shirley Ballas, who has come under social media scrutiny for wanting to save Pernice and his dance partner Richie Anderson in the dance-off.
In light of the furore, the BBC star has been accused of “biased favouritism” and has since asked viewers to be respectful with their comments online.
She said: “Being someone who judges on a television show, I get hate every single week. If you say one thing about somebody that somebody else disagrees or if I say something about a queen that somebody loves, its death wishes to me.
“It’s just the way that it is when you judge on a television show, so Shirley [Ballas] has to deal with that, that’s just a reality, that’s her job.
“But for everybody else, literally it’s her opinion, that’s what she’s hired to do. She is a judge. If she would have saved Richie [Anderson] and Giovanni [Pernice] then that’s what she would have done.
“That doesn’t make her biased that doesn’t make her anti-female,” she continued.
“There’s been times where I’ve spoken completely opposite of guest stars and judges and even Ru’s disagreed, you know on certain things, and I’ve disagreed with her but that’s not hate, that’s not hateful, that’s an opinion.
“[Shirley] didn’t say, ‘you’re a woman, I hate you. I’m going to vote for Giovanni and Richie because they’re men’. That’s not what she said. What she said was ‘I would have voted for Giovanni and Richie’.
“So, I don’t think people need to read into things. You can say, ‘oh her decision is crazy’ but I don’t know why we need to turn it into something that is literally their job.”
While Visage had stern words for disgruntled viewers, she admitted that she has “begged” producers to do an “all stars” instalment of the show so that she can share the BBC ballroom with Pernice again.
Although show bosses have yet to take her up on her plea, the star had several memorable performances during her run, none more so than her couple’s choice dance to Vogue, which paid homage her two loves - New York’s ballroom scene and Madonna.
Visage’s admiration for Madonna runs deep, with the star previously revealing how she would tell people she was “the next Madonna” before she joined girl group Seduction, and was even accused of copying the Material Girl’s style once she made it on the charts.
Being a die-hard Madonna fan, what does Visage make of the queerbaiting accusations being levelled at the Express Yourself singer after she shared a TikTok suggesting she was gay earlier this week.
The BBC personality said: “Nobody is more eloquent at making a headline than Madonna. So, you make of it what you will and again, she doesn’t do anything for people not to talk.
“Everybody’s allowed to have their opinion, whether you agree or disagree. Madonna does what she does to make headlines. So nobody does it better than her.”
