(Full disclosure: I am — all tea, no shade — a huge fan of RuPaul, squirrelfriends)
“I do not impersonate females! How many women do you know who wear seven inch heels, four foot wigs, and skintight dresses?” -RuPaul
Back when I was a kid, if you asked someone how many “gender identities” there were, you would probably be told that there are (at most) three: Male, Female, and Something Is Wrong With You. Thanks to (among other things) the upheavals of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the mid-60s, we’re all (hopefully) a little more sophisticated than that. Well, okay: hopefully most of us are a little more sophisticated than that. Those who still subscribe the the straight boy/straight girl/deviant worldview have been exposed (at least a little) to the many alternatives that are out there, and I believe that we have to give some portion of the credit for this to the once and future Supermodel Of The World… RuPaul.
RuPaul Charles (born November 17/1960, 6:52 PM, San Diego California) is undoubtedly the world’s best-known drag queen, a trailblazer in the entertainment industry, a marketing genius, and a 6 foot 4 phenomenon even without heels. Since his (or “her” — RuPaul doesn’t care which pronoun you use) birth data is relatively well-confirmed for a celebrity, his birth chart can be incredibly instructive, especially when it comes to the astrological factors that make a person “gay.”
And by “instructive,” I mean “we all still have a lot to learn about these things.”
Over the years, I’ve seen a number of astrologers put forth various theories about what it is in a birth chart that makes a person gay. Some astrologers look to the condition of the Eighth House, or possibly the Twelfth if your tastes run to Vedic. Others look for something happening between Venus and Uranus (when in doubt, if you’re an astrologer and think something is weird, blame Uranus). Personally, the only thing in a chart I’ve found that even comes close to being an indicator is when there is a significant aspect between the rulers of the 4th and 10th Houses. And sure enough, RuPaul’s 4th and 10th House rulers are conjunct in the 5th House, ruled by (and in a mutual reception with) Pluto in Virgo. This could easily be translated as “someone with a flexible gender identity, who manages to have fun with it.” This could also be related to the outmoded idea that if you’re gay, it’s because of an issue where either Mommy or Daddy gave you the wrong idea.
Even that is pretty inadequate, though. Lots of non-gay people have an aspect between the rulers of their 4th and 10th Houses. Even the more accurate formulations I’ve seen seeking a “gay signature” tend to be about as reliable as those “which Sign is best in bed?” articles one comes across a lot. The correct answer to THAT question is, of course: “whichever Sign you’ve had/are having the most fun with.” Case closed.
Maybe the answer is RuPaul’s Gemini Rising. Gemini, the Twins. The Rising Sign is what you project to the world. So maybe — nah. That’s pushing it. If it weren’t patently false, it would just be lazy astrology. It’s like saying “If you’re from Idaho, you are more likely to be a potato.”
For a long time, this lack of gender-role accuracy was a source of frustration to me as an astrologer. After all, a decent birth chart can spot things like your temperament whether you have talent for singing, if you have nice cheekbones or hair issues… so why not “gay”? Surely if such relatively trivial matters as “ability to train small animals, as opposed to large animals” can be spotted in the birth chart, then certainly something like hetero or homosexuality should —
And then, as so often happens to me, the obvious finally poked me hard enough for me to notice it. Thanks for that, Ru.
“My hope is that my career will be a shining example to children everywhere that life is more meaningful when you are not afraid to see all colors of the rainbow.” -RuPaul
It seems that “gay” or “not gay” requires something like what mathematicians call “fuzzy logic.”
Standard Logic: Is there a carton of milk in the fridge: yes or no?
Fuzzy Logic: Is there a carton of milk in the fridge? Yes, and it’s 70% full.
Personally, I prefer not to hang labels on someone. When I look at RuPaul’s birth chart, I’m much more interested in that watery Moon-Mars-Midheaven Grand Trine, which makes Ru driven and ambitious enough to have built an entertainment empire using the raw materials of a fringe culture. And I find myself more drawn to the Saturn Return happening at the end of 2018. I’m not as worried about this as I would be for many others undergoing the same transit, but still: there are likely to be some awkward transitions for Ru in the next 12 months.
No matter where one falls on the SLGBTQQAX spectrum (which is short for Straight, Gay Bisexual, Transsexual Queer, Questioning, Asexual, and “something we haven’t heard of yet”), or whether one zips back and forth on that scale… when it comes to the crazy complexity of human behaviors when they interact with each other, I think there is one guideline that all Sex Theorists should ascribe to. In fact, I think it’s something all astrologers should heed as well. It is a quote from no less than Ru him/herself:
“We’re born naked, and the rest is drag.”
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