Alan Cumming Admits Peppermint’s Early Banishment From ‘The Traitors’ “Was Not A Good Look”: “The First Person To Go Out Is A Trans Person Of Color”

Personally, the biggest grievance I have with Season 2 of The Traitors is the duplicitous behavior (yeah, I said it) of CT and Trishelle when they screwed over MJ Javid in the finale. But myself and many other fans of the show were also genuinely disappointed by the early banishment of RuPaul’s Drag Race star Peppermint, who was the first eliminated contestant of the season.

Not only was Peppermint just plain Good TV, she was also one of the only contestants who was a visible member of the LGBTQIA+ community to appear on the show last season. (Alan Cumming, who appears in every episode of the show as the host/murder emcee, identifies as bisexual. Parvati Shallow came out as queer last December.)

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Cumming spoke about Peppermint’s early dismissal from the show and addressed the widely-commented-on fact that Peppermint’s banishment meant that trans people were not represented on the show for the rest of the season.

“I think it was just by chance [that Peppermint was eliminated first],” Cumming said. “But that was not a good look in the world we live in: that the first person to go out is a trans person of color, and one of the only queer [contestants] on the whole show.”

“It would be better if there were more [queer] people there, so it didn’t seem like they were token. We’ve just got to be more representative,” Cumming added. “There should be trans and queer people everywhere, and people of color everywhere, until people just shut up and stop being so stupid and hateful about it.”

The Traitors Season 3 contestants include Dorinda Medley (The Real Housewives of New York City), Chanel Ayan (The Real Housewives of Dubai), Dolores Catania (The Real Housewives of New Jersey), Robyn Dixon (The Real Housewives of Potomac), Ciara Miller (Summer House) and Tom Sandoval (Vanderpump Rules), all of whom hail from the Bravo-verse.

The Biggest Loser‘s Bob Harper will also appear, along with Big Brother’s Britney Hayes and Danielle Reyes, Survivor’s Carolyn Wiger, Jeremy Collins and Tony Vlachos, Deal or No Deal Island’s Rob Mariano and RuPaul’s Drag Race‘s Bob The Drag Queen, and Bachelor Nation’s Gabby Windey from The Bachelorette and Wells Adams from Bachelor in Paradise. There’s also Chrishell Stause from Selling Sunset, Dylan Efron from Down to Earth with Zac Efron, British Royal Lord Ivar Mountbatten, professional wrestler Nikki Garcia and Britney Spears’ ex-husband Sam Asghari. 

“I actually lobbied quite hard to have more queer representation, in terms of the contestants in this next season,” Cumming also told EW, and of these Season 3 contestants, Bob the Drag Queen, Chrishell Stause, Gabby Windey, Bob Harper, and Lord Ivar Mountbatten all identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and it seems like Cumming’s desire for more visibility within his castle walls is being honored.

And hey, maybe even Peppermint will find her way back to the castle just like Kate Chastain did as last season’s secret player.