Sasha Colby Is the Past, Present, and Future of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’

History can be passed down in a number of ways — text books, folk songs, newsreels, those old, fast clicky things in the libraries that are under a microscope/viewfinder. Microfiche? Microfiche. Well, that goes for mainstream history — that is to say, straight history. It’s also said that history is told by the victors and, at least when it comes to what gets taught in schools, the victors have long been straight, white, Christian, and male. Queer history is taken orally. No one is gonna tell our stories unless we tell them, and that’s still true to this day. Yeah, there’s more LGBTQ+ representation in movies and on television, but there’s a difference between Heartstopper being a runway success for Netflix and major queer history moments like the Compton’s cafeteria riot being taught in schools. We’ve got the former but we’re far, far away from the latter.

This is what I think about when I watch Sasha Colby lip sync to girl group Fifth Harmony’s 2015 single “I’m In Love With a Monster” on the Lip Sync LaLaPaRUza episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15. The brain goes where it goes, and my brain sees generations of queer excellence embodied by Sasha Colby every single time she’s on my TV — especially when she’s lip syncing to girl group Fifth Harmony’s 2015 single “I’m In Love With a Monster.”

This lip sync feels like such a moment — partly because Colby’s lip syncing against Anetra, one of the cast’s fiercest performers and the queen who’s given Season 15 its biggest breakout moment so far (“You better walk that fucking duck!”). But it also feels like a moment because of who Sasha Colby is, what she represents, and what she delivers — without fail, mind you — every single week. Sasha Colby is a trans woman and the series’ first Native Hawaiian queen. She was a legend before she got on RuPaul’s Drag Race, something that’s become rarer as the series goes on. And also… Sasha Colby is 37.

Okay — that’s not old (I write, sweatily, knowing that Colby is a year younger than me) but it can seem older on Drag Race. I previously crunched these numbers after an ageism talk occurred on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under, but — of the 56 queens who appeared on RuPaul’s Drag Race Seasons 12-15, only 16 have been over 30. The queer community already has a lot of issues around age, as we — like society on the whole — prioritize youthfulness. But the queer community also has the unique and tragic problem of not being allowed to grow old due to the devastation of AIDS, higher suicide rates, and the constant murder of trans people. Maybe the queer community gravitates towards youth because we so rarely get to see ourselves grow up, let alone grow old.

And then there’s 37-year-old Sasha Colby, flipping her ponytail like it was a whip, jiggling her perfect asscheeks to the beat, landing in a three-point stance like she’s damn Black Widow. Before the lip sync starts, Colby says in her confessional, “I know the song, I know my opponent, I know this stage, and I know me. Let’s just get going.” Of course the confidence is there. Every queen has confidence. But Colby’s confidence requires no effort because Sasha Colby has already put in a few decades of effort. Every week Sasha Colby has reminded us of the power of growing older, and how gaining years means you’re gaining experience. That manifests in her staying above petty drama, her imparting stories of Hawaii’s queer history to her sisters, her crying tears of joy over being able to be a representation of a happy trans person on television. She has nothing to prove but she still has everything to show.

This energy is what I love seeing on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and it’s an energy that we don’t get enough of. Reminder that oftentimes the queens who serve up the history lessons or radiate motherly energy or practice old school drag are usually in their 20s. Mistress Isabelle Brooks is 24, by the way, a year older than Sugar and Spice.

Sasha Colby doesn’t feel like anyone we’ve seen on Drag Race before, though. She has the tenacity and the backbone of the fiercest of queens, and she also has the well-adjusted calm of someone who has lived and worked and can differentiate what’s annoying right now from what matters in the long run. “I know the song, I know my opponent, I know this stage, and I know me.”

If Drag Race is now in its TikTok queen era, then The Sasha Colby also needs to be a new archetype — not that any queen compares to Queen Colby. But I mean — I want to see more 37-year-old queens, more 40-year-old queens, any over 50 queens. I want to hear those stories and I want to watch the riveting television that comes from seeing a seasoned professional werk. With over a dozen queer people on its cast every single season, RuPaul’s Drag Race is precisely where we should see a full spectrum of the queer experience — not just 12 Gen Zers and a handful of old millennials. Sasha Colby is not just living drag history. Sasha Colby is the past, present, and future of drag and Drag Race.