Drag Race UK’s Pixie Polite Hospitalised After ‘Homophobic’ Attack

Pixie Polite, best known for appearing on season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, has spoken out after she was attacked and hospitalised in what police are treating as a hate crime.

In an Instagram story on Monday 28 July, Polite wrote she had been attacked in the Colliers Wood area of south west London

“Just got assaulted in Tesco at Colliers Wood. Punched in the back of the neck/head. Sick of this shit,” the post read.

In a follow up post the day after, Polite thanked her followers for their concern and said she was “mentally fine”.

“Main point is I’m ok, police were surprisingly great. An incident that evolved from general comments and mocking, into verbal homophobic abuse, then into violence,” she said.

“When they catch the guy it will be prosecuted as there’s CCTV, witnesses, and I also got a picture of the guy. Mentally fine but heading to hospital with suspected concussion. But overall soooo fine.”

The incident isn’t Polite’s first experience of violent homophobia in London. In 2023, a drunk man threatened to stab her with a whiskey bottle while she was at the bus stop.

Drop in reported homophobic and transphobic hate crimes

In a statement to PinkNews, the Metropolitan Police Service confirmed the incident is being treated as a hate crime.

“At 18:10hrs on Monday, 28 July officers responded to reports of assault and verbal abuse inside a shop on High Street Colliers Wood, Merton.

“Police spoke with one victim, a person in their 30s. An investigation has been launched and the incident is being treated as a hate crime. Enquiries are ongoing. At this stage no arrests have been made.”

Metropolitan Police Services reported that a little over 3,000 homophobic hate crimes occurred in London between June 2024 and June 2025, a decrease of 18.7 per cent compared to the previous 12 months.

Home Office data for the year ending in March 2024 show sexual orientation hate crimes in England and Wales had decreased by 8 per cent compared to the previous year, while transgender hate crime also dropped by 2 per cent. This follows a record number of hate crimes committed against transgender people for the year ending in March 2023, with a recorded 4,732 incidents.

In 2023, the late winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season one, The Vivienne, said homophobia was “alive and well” after she was targeted in a homophobic attack in Liverpool. The perpetrator received a suspended jail sentence in 2024.