Drag Race UK: Kitty Scotty-Claus on saving London’s LGBTQ+ scene, homophobia and the British icons she wants to see on Snatch Game
Drag Race UK season three contestant Kitty Scott-Claus may originally be from Birmingham, but it was in London that she got her first taste of LGBTQ+ culture, after moving here aged 18.
Kitty, now 29, remembers her first LGBTQ+ night out at London’s Heaven, after initially “living the life of a nun” while at drama school.
“Back home I was the only gay child in my year at school. I never had gay friends,” she says.
“Coming to london and meeting loads of queer people and being able to express ourselves - it really is amazing. It’s just everything that you want it to be.”
Kitty cites Soho’s KU Bar, Freedom Bar and Phoenix Arts Club as her favourite LGBTQ+ venues in the capital, while Pride in London is her “gay Christmas”.
However, she says she’s worried about the impact of the pandemic on the capital’s queer scene.
Between 2006 and 2017, the number of LGBTQ+ venues in London dropped from 124 down to just 47, while several venues have faced the threat of closure due to the pandemic.
“There are so many great venues that especially now need our support after the pandemic”, she says.
“Look at The Admiral Duncan, it’s such an iconic venue, and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. If we lost these venues, we’re losing a huge part of queer history which we can’t do.”
“We need these spaces. They are the places where young queer people go and find out who they are and who they want to become.”
Kitty says that other venues that have been forced to close are “breeding grounds” for the UK’s most-loved drag artists, with shut-down venues such as Her Upstairs in Camden helping queens like Cheryl Hole, Tayce and Kitty herself to make their debuts.
Without LGBTQ+ venues, many Londoners would struggle to see the capital as the diverse place it claims to be.
“I think the biggest thing you can do is to go and support the venues,” Kitty says.
“Go and have a drink, go and meet friends and socialise, and give them your business because that’s what they need at the end of the day.”
It was London’s queer nightlife scene that enabled Kitty to start drag: while working in musical theatre, a friend asked her to stick on a wig and perform as Kimberely Walsh in a drag Girls Aloud tribute band.
It’s what she loves about London nightlife; it’s inclusive, and “it’s for everybody to express themselves, be it drag queen, drag king, a drag thing even”.
“You can literally get anything and everything and you can go for a night out and you don’t know what to expect and you will be blown away,” she says.
However, Kitty is painfully aware that even in 2021 London, not everyone is accepting of LGBTQ+ culture.
In the past few months alone, there has been a shocking number of homophobic hate crimes across the UK.
Just last month, 50-year-old Ranjith Kankanamalage, known as ‘Roy’, was murdered in Tower Hamlets in a ‘homophobic attack’.
“The thing is, it’s very real what's happening,” Kitty says.
“You see it all the time. It’s disgusting. Queer people being beaten and abused and murdered.”
While Kitty says she hasn’t experienced severe discrimination herself, she says that homophobic comments are still commonplace.
“You always get comments. You always get, like, “ugh, gay” and you’re like, yeah! Clearly! Wow, what gave that away? I’m a man in a dress!
“This is why Pride is so important. As much as it's a celebration and it's a gorgeous day, it is a protest and it shows that we are here, we’re not going anywhere, and we're so proud to be authentically ourselves.”
It’s Soho’s buzzing LGBTQ+ scene that enabled Kitty to be her authentic self.
She says Soho’s “massive tits and big personalities” approach to drag inspired her own drag persona.
She’s a theatrical, “busty blonde”, with a camp cackle for a laugh and devilishly sharp wit; in her own words, she’s an amalgamation of Gemma Collins and Sharpay from High School Musical, with a bit of Steps’ Lisa Scott-Lee thrown in for good measure.
She’s the Love of Huns Instagram page personified, and is bound to be a hit on staple Drag Race challenge Snatch Game, where contestants impersonate celebrities.
There’s a number of British icons that Kitty is desperate to see given the Snatch Game treatment.
“I would love to see a good Edina Monsoon, a good Jennifer saunders. So iconic! So brilliant. And the same with a good Patsy Stone.
“Imagine if someone did Lady Colin Cambell; that would be so funny. And why has nobody done Kim Woodburn?”
“Snatch Game has always been my favourite challenge,” she says.
After filming the series way back during the UK’s bleak winter lockdown, Kitty is now just ready for the show to air.
“We’ve been waiting for so long so now it’s finally coming out, it’s like ugh, amazing. I just feel excited more than anything. Bring it on. I can’t wait!”
If you watch Drag Race UK season three and find yourself falling in Love with Kitty Scott-Claus, you can catch her performing live and “having a camp old time” in Soho.
“I'm always in Soho; I’m always knocking around, I’m always singing a song, having a drink, having a gorgeous time.
“They can't get rid of me!”
