Sahara Davenport, R.I.P.

Drag artist and Season 2 star of Rupaul's Drag Race, Antoine Ashley, who performed under the name Sahara Davenport, died earlier this week at age 27.

The cause of death hasn't been released, but, and at risk of sounding cliche, it's always shocking and sad when someone dies so young.

Rupaul's tweeted this shortly after Saraha's death was made known. (Via World of Wonder )

Other cast members left their own tributes on their twitter and facebook pages, which you can read here.

For some reason this seems so much more devastating that other celebrity deaths, maybe because I've been a fan of the show since its inception, but also because drag deals in fantasy and recreating oneself that we often don't see the mortality behind the performer. I think of how nearly the entire cast of Paris Is Burning, the twenty-year-old documentary about the drag scene and where Drag Race draws a lot of its inspiration, is dead, and it's desperately sad. R.I.P. Sahara.