A US talk show set to interview disgraced RuPaul’s Drag Race alum Sherry Pie is being urged to reconsider, with the interview set to be little more than an image rehab for the drag queen.
In case you’ve forgotten, Sherry Pie (whose real name is Joey Gugliemelli) was edited out of Drag Race‘s 12th season after she was accused of catfishing young men by posing as a casting director and enticing them to send her videos of a sexual nature.
Gugliemelli apologised for her “truly cruel” actions, and a statement on each episode of Drag Race read:
“In light of recent developments and Sherry Pie’s statement, Sherry Pie has been disqualified from RuPaul’s Drag Race. Out of respect for the hard work of the other queens, VH1 will air the season as planned. Sherry will not appear in the grand finale scheduled to be filmed later this spring.”
That was close to a year ago, and since then Sherry/Gugliemelli has largely dropped off the public radar.
Now, the Tamron Hall Show has booked her to appear on an upcoming episode – and people are not happy.
One of Sherry’s victims, Ben Shimkus, called on producers to cancel the interview.
“@TamronHallShow is platforming Sherry Pie because violence against queer people is too often normalised,” he said on Twitter.
“Do better. Get him off the show. Take the episode away. We don’t deserve this. He causes violence in our community.”
https://twitter.com/BenShimkus/status/1361271888094322690
In another tweet, he said:
“Just so we are all clear on this, I spoke with producers at @TamronHallShow and told them that I and the 20 victims that I spoke to today DO NOT want them to air a segment with Sherry Pie. They’re going to air it despite the all of our requests.”
Season 12 queen Jackie Cox amplified Shimkus’ calls, and used her platform to also urge the show to dump Sherry.
“I am publicly calling on @TamronHallShow to reconsider giving Sherry Pie access to a platform of national television to tell her side of the story without first speaking to the victims of her abuses and allowing them to weigh in on their own trauma,” Jackie said on Twitter.
I am publicly calling on @TamronHallShow to reconsider giving Sherry Pie access to the platform of national television to tell their side of the story without first speaking with the victims of her abuses and allowing them to weigh in on their own trauma. (1/4)
— Jackie Cox (@JackieCoxNYC) February 15, 2021
“Being a performer and public persona is not a right, it is a privilege. Sherry relinquished this privilege by their actions. Giving Sherry a spotlight without the forethought to reach out to victims is irresponsible, immoral and wrong. I stand with the victims of Sherry’s actions.”
Sherry was accused by former Cortland State University classmates of pretending to be a casting director called Allison Mossey, who would communicate via email about upcoming productions and entice them to send ‘her’ videos of a sexual nature.
It was Shimkus’ Facebook post – in which he spoke of the “massive emotional trauma” of learning he had been tricked by Sherry – which kicked off the accusations and led to Sherry being removed from Drag Race in the first place.
Sherry now appears to be using this new interview to kick off her image rehab tour.
In the first Facebook post she’s made since her apology in March 2020, she promoted her upcoming appearance by saying:
“It’s been a long year of learning to own my many unpardonable mistakes.
“I’ll be sharing my story, reflecting on my shameful actions, and working towards making amends.”
You could probably do that without a nationally syndicated platform though, no?
