Bob the Drag Queen criticizes ANTM 'mean girls' for mistreating trans model Isis King: 'Justifyin...

Bob tells EW he was shocked by the cruelty of &34;America's Next Top Model&34; cycle 11 stars, after Tyra Banks broke new ground by casting trans star Isis King

Bob tells EW he was shocked by the cruelty of "America's Next Top Model" cycle 11 stars, after Tyra Banks broke new ground by casting trans star Isis King.

Bob the Drag Queen criticizes ANTM 'mean girls' for mistreating* *trans model Isis King: 'Justifying the harm' (exclusive)

Bob tells EW he was shocked by the cruelty of "America's Next Top Model" cycle 11 stars, after Tyra Banks broke new ground by casting trans star Isis King.

's Oscars expert, 'RuPaul's Drag Race' beat reporter, host of 'Quick Drag' Twitter Spaces, and cohost of 'EW's BINGE' podcast. Almost all of the drag content on this site is my fault (you're welcome).

EW's editorial guidelines

September 1, 2025 5:00 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

- Bob the Drag Queen tells EW he was appalled by the way *ANTM* stars treated Isis King on cycle 11.

- Bob felt that Clark Gilmer was 'justifying the harm' done to trans people in her comments about King.

- King was the first trans model to star on the Tyra Banks show.

*RuPaul's Drag Race *season 8 winner Bob the Drag Queen exclusively opens up to * *about feeling appalled by "mean girls" on* America's Next Top Model *over* *the treatment of cycle 11's trailblazing trans contestant Isis King.

In a new EW video interview highlighting his favorite queer pop culture moments in history, Bob tells EW that he loved seeing Tyra Banks cast King on cycle 11, which came after King caught the supermodel's eye as a background model for a prior shoot on cycle 10. But the drag superstar says he detested the way select other contestants behaved around the trans star.

"I love Isis. Full disclosure, we know each other," Bob says of his casual pal, who starred on Banks' reality show in 2008. "I remember getting to see her compete on my television screen and being blown away."

Bob says that "it was amazing to see her compete on the show," but lamented that "she did get a lot of microaggressions and macroaggressions on the show."

Model Isis King.

Araya Doheny/Getty

While the *ANTM* judges, at times, criticized King for not feeling fully comfortable doing a photo challenge that required wearing a barely-there bikini while submerged in a pool, King also endured transphobic comments from fellow contestants like Clark Gilmer (who now goes by Clark Florian) and Hannah White.

During the casting episode, Gilmer was shown reacting shock after King told the group that she was trans, with another contestant, Sharuan Brown (who presented at the Grammys earlier this year), saying, "the reality is, she's a man."

Both Gilmer and White were also shown on the air making insensitive comments about King regarding her gender, with Gilmer referring to her as a "he-she" at one point, and additionally telling White that, if King walked around "in a small town" while being trans, she'd likely "get shot."

Bob reacts in horror to Gilmer's comments in particular.**

"Getting to see a trans person navigate through that and everyone can see what it's like, how it affects her, and you also get a chance to reflect on how you've treated queer people and trans people in your life," he says. "I've got to say, Isis handled this, first of all, way better than I could've on my best day. I could've never, ever handled this as well as Isis did."

'ANTM' star says 'dismissive' Jay Manuel snubbed her at awards show: 'Looked at me like, ugh'

'ANTM' star Ambreal Williams says Tyra Banks 'ran off the stage' when Ebony Morgan quit

He continues, "These girls, they're not girls, they're young women, they're not f---ing kids, they're adults. They are grown adults. Very young adults, but still adults, making fun of her body hair, her sweating, her breasts, she says I was not born female, and they take it back and go, she said she used to be a man. Now we're rewriting history."

Bob calls the contestants' treatment of King "the epitome of what you'd think about when you think of mean girls teasing someone," and that he was confused by *ANTM*'s decision to highlight the models' words at first.

"I don't know what the angle was," he admits. "Was it like, people will agree with Isis or people will agree with the other models?"**

He then singles out Gilmer for being "horrible," he feels, once again.

Bob the Drag Queen; Isis King on 'America's Next Top Model'.

; Jim De Yonker/The CW

"Saying stuff like, 'If you walk around like that.' What do you mean 'like that' and 'You get shot?' She's justifying the harm, if not the murder, of someone for walking around," Bob estimates. "She didn't say for talking crazy, she said walking around. 'You walk around,' and therefore she gets to justify your harm, if not your murder. That's crazy. Nowadays, it's actually worse than it was then. They have the information and knowledge, and they're choosing to be hateful."

EW has attempted to reach Florian for a response, but her public Instagram profile's comments are limited and a direct message to her account was not delivered due to her privacy settings.

An X account claiming to be Florian and containing conservative political messages, also does not have a private messaging option.

***Sign up for **'s free daily newsletter* *to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.*****

King previously told EW in an exclusive statement in March that she was "still so fascinated by the effect it has had on pop culture" and that she's "forever grateful for the impact my presence as an open trans woman had on the contestants and the audience."

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

She added, "Was *ANTM* perfect? No. Would I have had the same success story without bearing my heart for the world to see, hoping the opportunity redirected me from poverty, and allowed me to travel the world following my dreams as an actress, model, and artist? Probably not."

In addition to returning to compete on *ANTM*'s cycle 17 all-star edition, Banks also welcomed King to her* Tyra Banks Show* talk series after cycle 11. There, Banks introduced King to a surgeon who assisted with the model's transition.

Banks has addressed* ANTM*'s many controversies in the past, including admitting at the 2025 Essence Black Women in Hollywood ceremony in March that she "said some dumb s---" on the show.

The supermodel did, however, stress that in casting people like King, plus-sized models, and a model like cycle 12's Tahlia Brookins, who competed with burn scars on her body, that people ultimately had "no idea how hard we fought to bring the diversity to that television show at a time where it didn't exist, to show different beauties at a time when the world was like, 'What? She's casting that? What is that?'"

Watch Bob discuss King and *America's Next Top Model* in EW's video above.**

Original Article on Source

Source: "AOL TV"

Read More

---

Source: VOGUE MAG

Full Article on Source: VOGUE MAG

#LALifestyle #USCelebrities