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OUT

n the MOUNTAINS

 

Are the Stars Out

Tonight?    

Tenth Drag Ball Less Lustrous
by Francesca Susanna

 

Even this
frumpy
dyke

knows that
it takes
more than
the zip of a I
zipper to
turn a
boy in a
dress into
a drag --
queen.

   

e Winter is a Drag Ball
turned ten this year, and
eitherthe bloom is off the

rose, or maybe it’s just that I’ve
grown jaded. Where has all the fab-
ulousness gone? To New York with
the beloved Yolanda? Texas with
Cherie Tartt? No one has yet come

' out to fill the shoes of the Queen

City’s great queens, but hopefully it
will happen soon.

This year’s Drag Ball
was held at Higher Ground’s new
location on Williston Road in
South Burlington, a far cry from
downtown Winooski with its gritty,
edgy feel and drag-queen-meets
working-class-town vibe. The new
space holds several hundred more
people than the original Higher
Ground did, so if it seemed less
packed than usual, it wasn‘t for

 

 

lack of numbers.

If it seemed less spectac-
ular than usual, it may be that there
was an oddly high Frump Factor
this year. Every year Drag Ball
draws a number of people who
make little or no effort to get into
the spirit of the thing — curiosity
seekers. This year, the curiosity
seekers seemed as numerous as the
curiosities. There also seemed to be
a prevailing attitudeamong the
men who came in drag that they
need only put on a skirt. Remember
when, in To Wong F u etc. where
one of the amazing queens told lit-
tle Chi-Chi that he wasn’t a drag
queen yet, but only a boy in a
dress? Between ten drag balls, To
Wang F u and Wigstock, even this
frumpy dyke knows that it takes
more than the zip of a zipper to

turn a boy in dress into a drag
queen. I mean, the, young man who
won the queen’s crown wasn’t even
wearing a wig. How does that hap-
pen?

There were some great
outfits at the ball. One queen got
onstage wearing a huge Marie
Antoinette dress made of shining
satin, draped in‘ swags, with a tall
platinum cone of hair on her head,
and sang the aria “La donna e
mobile” for the crowd. A gentle-
man named Gene wore a leather
harness across his chest, black
pants that revealed a cute tush (the
whole thing). and a towering black‘
feather headdress and mask. There
was a medieval princess, a bit of
mink, a gown of pink silk and other
finery in the crowd.

The young man who was