Mind The Gamp

An underground bromance is flourishing between London Mayor Sadiq Khan and drag performer Bimini Bon Boulash. This week, the pair marked ten years of the Night Tube with a celebratory video for Transport for London.

Bimini, whose real name is Tommy Hibbitts, towered over the mayor in platform heels, a miniskirt and what appeared to be ski goggles. “It’s great to have [the night tube] so that people can get from A to B and dress how they want and feel safe with it,” he burbled.

As the men embraced, Khan looked delighted, excitedly pointing out that Bimini has already had a busy summer. He has indeed. Earlier this month the ‘non binary’ drag performer was booked by BBC Newsnight, where he was treated with the sort of awed indulgence usually reserved for unusually articulate children.

Bimini has a CV to make the gamps at the BBC and City Hall go googly-eyed. Since finishing second on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, he has modelled with the female section of an agency, released music, secured a Penguin book deal and received an honorary fellowship from Goldsmiths. More recently, he encouraged viewers to complain to Ofcom about comments made by Caroline Farrow on GB News which upset him. (There appears to be a tussle over the ownership of this campaign, Good Law Project and some rando who sent a furious email to TERF Times also claim to be heading it. You can read about it here.)

From the Newsnight sofa Bimini opined that the decline of what he termed “LGBTQI+” venues was a serious problem. This is because they’re where “people can meet other people like themselves”. And perhaps he has a point. Without drag clubs, where would the bridesmaids meet before the wedding day?

Oddly, Bimini didn’t mention the rather obvious role of hook-up apps in the decline of gay nightlife. Men who once had to leave the house, buy a drink and sit through a drag act to find each other can now order sex from the sofa.

London does not feel like a safe city at the moment. The Tube campaign comes less than a fortnight after serial sex offender Simon Levy was given a whole-life order for murdering two women. Levy had also sexually assaulted ten women on London trains during a years-long offending spree.

Still, it’s nice that Bimini feels safe travelling home. Being a hulking great bloke probably helps. He might attract the odd side-eye from tourists unused to the capital’s Weimar ways, or perhaps a catcall from a latent gamp, but physical vulnerability is unlikely to be his chief concern.

Perhaps Bimini and Khan really are the perfect ambassadors for the Night Tube. One is a politician who wants Londoners to know how safe the capital is after dark; the other is a massive bloke in platform heels who feels perfectly safe travelling through it.

All aboard!