Stephen Dunn, the creator of the new Queer as Folk reboot tells how the late Chi Chi DeVayne inspired him.

In the reimagining of Russell T Davies classic 90s TV hit, Manchester is swapped wth New Orleans – owing to Stephen’s friendship with the Louisiana -born Chi Chi.

The RuPaul’s Drag Race star, who was a fan fave, died in 2020 of pneumonia after a hospital stay for scleroderma-related kidney failure at age 34.

Dunn explains in the July/ August issue of Attitude,

I was very close with Chi Chi..

She’s honestly the main reason I set the show there. I wrote the role of Bussy for her, now played incredibly by Armand Fields, but there’s so much of Chi Chi’s heart in it. And New Orleans is so resilient.

The community’s resilience is what our show’s about.” 

Chi Chi appeared on eighth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3.

Stephen says,

I pitched [Russell T Davies] my take, with the humour and joy in the original, about a community that moves on after a tragedy.

He gave it to me. We sold it that year.”

Queer as Folk is streaming on Peacock now.

Watch.

(via Advocate)