Kim Chi has always wanted to make sure she’s “giving back to the community” using whatever tools she has — and her newest project couldn’t have come at a better time.
As an artist, the RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 runner-up is always looking for ways to give her fans an escape. This became especially important after the election, when Kim Chi says she “couldn’t even leave my home because I was genuinely so upset and scared.”
“Especially for all my trans friends and my trans sisters who are still going through transitioning … I’m honestly scared for them. And I want to do everything in my power to protect them, but right now I just feel so hopeless,” Kim Chi tells The Advocate. “I just kind of have to dissociate and detach myself from everything, because I genuinely feel like there’s nothing I can do at the moment.”
Now, after launching a successful cosmetics line and several stints in reality television, the drag queen is taking on one of her most ambitious projects yet by partnering with Sundae School’s cannabis brand, Sundae Flowers, for a limited edition gummy: Kimchi Yuzu.
“If my mom is viewing this interview, I’ve never done it before. But for anybody else, I’ve been a marijuana user since I was 18, and honestly it was an eye-opening experience,” Kim Chi says. “In Korean media, all drugs are treated like it’s the worst thing in the world, but marijuana is medicinal and it helps so many people with pain, anxiety, depression, things like that.”
The yuzu-flavored gummies each contain 10mg of THC and are coated in a kimchi powder, making them the “fluffiest, most delicious gummy you’ll ever taste,” according to the artist. The campaign attached to it, Kim Chi Over Flowers, also incorporates vintage Korean pop culture references, paying homage to the popular K-drama Boys Over Flowers. The entire project is a love letter to Kim Chi’s drag, which itself is inspired by her “mission to spread Korean things.”
“Kimchi is obviously the national dish of Korea, which is why I also chose that name — because I want Korean culture everywhere around the world,” she says.
The product is one of the first from a drag artist to use THC, continuing the connection between the LGBTQ+ community and activism for cannabis, which has long been a critical therapy used by HIV and AIDS patients. While Kim Chi advocates for responsible substance use, she also acknowledges how “for us queers, we love escaping from reality, and there are times we also need detachment” — especially now.
Kim Chi also believes THC is unfairly restricted in comparison to alcohol, even though it does not cause physical withdrawal symptoms, does not damage the brain, and has never led to a fatal overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“After a long hard day, long hard week, it’s nice to just come home, light one up or take an edible, and then just dissociate. It’s safe, it’s not physically addicting — we love it,” she says, adding, “Do you want go out and pay for a $25 cocktail, or do you want to pop [an edible] and stay in and chill for the night?”
Kim Chi and Sundae Flowers have also decided to donate 18 percent of proceeds to the Anti-Recidivism Coalition Firefighter Fund, which is providing relief efforts during the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles. Even beyond the unprecedented natural disaster, the artist says that she feels “like it’s so tone deaf to sell things to people without giving back to the community.”
“I know people that are personally affected and I have friends without insurance who lost their homes,” Kim Chi says. “The government is not taking care of us, so we as community have to take care of each other.”
This is especially true now that Donald Trump has once again been sworn in as president, and Republican legislators continue to attack LGBTQ+ rights across the country, including the right for drag artists to perform. To Kim Chi, that the targeted legislation “makes me really feel sad for humanity, and I just never want to feel that way.”
“It’s crazy that there’s so many people in the world trying to do the good thing, but a few wealthy elites can just sit on their comfortable throne and destroy millions of lives for their own personal gain,” Kim Chi says. “It’s sickening. It is absolutely maddening.”
“My trans friends — all they want to do is just live their lives unbothered. And even that is too much to ask for this day and age,” she continues.
While Kim Chi doesn’t know what the future will hold, she knows she’ll always be working to support the queer community. She’s not sure if she’ll “ever do another competitive drag setting,” but she “would love to be in a space that’s not like a competition Drag Race setting, but maybe like a food show.” She also promises more launches this year that will expand her brand even further.
For now, Kim Chi is focused on building up and giving back. She says: “We can’t directly affect these corrupt politicians, but what we can do is stand together as a community and continue to inspire each other.”