RuPaul on "RuPaul's Drag Race" Source: YouTube Still via VH1

Watch: RuPaul Changes Iconic 'Drag Race' Catchphrase for Season 13

READ TIME: 1 MIN.

There's no shortage of catchphrases for RuPaul but the "Drag Race" host is changing the language around of his most iconic sayings.

This week, the first 10 minutes of the upcoming Season 13 were released and it shows RuPaul introducing the episode. Usually, he says, "Gentlemen, start your engine and may the best woman win!" But (many) things are different this time around and Ru alters the phrase to be gender-neutral: "Racers, start your engines and may the best drag queen win!"

Perhaps the cause for the change is because Season 13 features the show's first trans male contestant, Gottmik, a performer from Los Angeles.

Back in 2014, "Drag Race" and Ru came under fire for the use of transphobic language on the show and specifically the "she-mail" segment, where Ru would hint at the week's challenge to the queens. For Season 6, produces edited the segment and removed the offensive phrase and the show hasn't used it since. Nevertheless, in 2015, Ru explained in an interview that he didn't want to change it.

"I would not have changed it, but that's their choice," Ru told the Guardian at the time. "Our intention was always coming from a place of love. On paper, you cannot read intention, so it was actually hurtful."

In recent years, fans raised the issue over the lack of trans representation on "Drag Race." Only a handful of contestants have been openly trans over the show's decade history.

Watch Ru deliver the new catchphrase below, which comes at 5:30 mark.


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