No cause of death has been announced but Shield had been diagnosed with throat cancer, which she had documented on social media since last September.<\/p>\n
Born Kristopher Elliot, the performer rose to international fame after appearing on the first season of Drag Race Down Under, based in New Zealand, where she finished sixth.<\/p>\n
The winner of the season, Kita Mean, said they were devastated by the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are the kindest queen that has ever been. Your love for drag, your wicked sense of humour, your giving spirit. There will forever be a void in my heavy heart where your fabulousness hit me like a tonne of bricks,\u201d Mean wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n
Your \u201cstrength over the last few months has been incomprehensible and I will go forward with such pride in my heart knowing I was friends with the best sister in the business. I love you so much,\u201d said Mean.<\/p>\n
Drag Race judge Michelle Visage posted a message of condolence on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved this queen. A glorious human on the inside and out. Your love, heart, talent and energy will be missed…\u201d said Visage.<\/p>\n
\u201cRest in power, my angel, you were truly one of a kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shield was an icon in the gay and drag scene in Australia. <\/p>\n
She performed at the closing ceremony at the 2000 Olympic Games and opened the Gay Games in 2002. <\/p>\n
She was a regular feature at venues along Oxford St, a hotspot for LGBTQI+ venues in Sydney.<\/p>\n
According to Shield\u2019s Instagram, even with her cancer she performed twice this month at two clubs in Sydney.<\/p>\n
Shield documented her journey with cancer on her Instagram using the phrase: \u201cWe are stronger than we think!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo all completed the 35 radiations plus 5 chemo. And to be honest the last couple of weeks I\u2019ve been really rough,\u201d Shield said on January 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going through this journey, the same as me, I\u2019m sending huge Maxi love. And if you\u2019ve gone through this process a huge hug for your bravery. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur community is strong, especially when we stay together… We are stronger than we think!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No cause of death has been announced but Shield had been diagnosed with throat cancer, which she had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29166,74,18919,5837,2534,6179,7126,6097,3555,156,164500,111,139,69,7798,316,5976,2737,8238,102],"class_list":["post-299149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-29166","tag-after","tag-aged","tag-battle","tag-cancer","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-down","tag-drag","tag-entertainment","tag-maxi","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-race","tag-shield","tag-short","tag-star","tag-under","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}