Washington Post Magazine: Long Live The Queens

The Show Must Go On

When Nationals Park was built, it displaced the city's drag queen enclave -- and put the performers' future in jeopardy.

Washington Post Magazine staff writer Lonnae O'Neal Parker was online Monday, August 11 to discuss her Washington Post Magazine cover story, "Long Live The Queens."

Lonnae O'Neal Parker is a longtime reporter for The Washington Post and the author of I'm Every Woman: Remixed Stories of Marriage, Motherhood, and Work.

A transcript follows.

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Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Good afternoon everyone. Thanks so much for joining me. I'm looking very forward to chatting about drag queens. I was trying to come up with my own drag name--if you read my book you already know I'm Every Woman!-- but I have to say I think Lonnae O'Neal Parker says it all--all the joy, pain and drama a body will ever need, right there.

Let's get started.

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Alexandria, Va.: One thing that was not mentioned in the GREAT article was the fact the the Academy of Washington has donated thousands of dollars to charity through MANY MANY fundraisers it holds during the year. In the article there was mention of money going into jars. That money was for charity and NOT for the Academy itself.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Thanks so much for bringing that up! A lot of the dollar bills actually went to the Academy's charity Help Our Own People which over the years has taken care of members who become sick or need other assistance. Mame Dennis is very proud of the fact that the community engages in that kind of self-help.

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Logan North, D.C.: Most of the drag performers referenced in your article were middle aged or older, and it appeared their audiences were as well. Would demographics and the growing assimilation of the gay community in DC have doomed their drag club even if real estate development did not? After all, one of the most successful new gay bars in DC is a sports bar that organizes outings of younger, openly gay men to the very same baseball stadium whose construction led to the demise of the drag club.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: There is a large middle aged contingent in the Academy, but membership seems to be very self-renewing. I was at a show where a dozen new members were brought in and half of them appeared to be in their twenties. Additionally, there are some very exciting performers Destiny B. Childs, Athena Couture, CoCo McCray, Ofelia Bottoms and his sister Xavier, others too numerous to name--in their 20s and 30s. I think they'll continue as long as there are folks dying to put on a dress and give it all up on stage which is a different thing from organized outings of openly gay men.

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Rockville, Md.: I'd like to go to a drag show for a bachelorette party. Are there any left in the District/Baltimore metro area on Saturday nights?

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: There are shows all over the area, they tend to feature younger performers and don't have the same concentration as the clubs in Southeast, but I attended several of them as well. Rehab in Silver Spring, Apex on Saturday nights, which often features the cover queen, Billie Ross. There's also Freddy's in Crystal City, and others. So the shows continue. But a lot of history was lost.

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Washington, DC: Hi Lonnae, this is Veronica Blake.

As you stated in response to Logan's question, we do have a self-renewing membership and we probably have as many younger members as we do older members. In fact, the Addison Road House is primarily newer members. No, we wouldn't have died of attrition, we keep getting new members in ... in fact, our first event of the season is always our "New Faces Show" to introduce all the new blood being added to the Academy.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Hey Veronica, you glamour girl.

Thanks for adding these piece of information in response to the earlier question.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Of all of the positive things the ballpark and the ballpark district has done - create jobs and ending urban blight within the shadow of the Capitol - the displacement of some wanna be girls is on what the Post chose to focus? No wonder your circulation is slipping. Good grief!

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: There are many positive aspects to the ballpark, I think many in this community just wonder did it have to be a zero sum game. Is there no more room for the textured places of the city? Should we all be culled into a single aesthetic? I think these are questions the city has to grapple with. These folks weren't newcomers, they had a history that stretched back more than 30 years. In other places, even if they had to move, they could merit some sort of arts designation which could generate tourist dollars.

The rest of your question sounds like vintage mean Liz Taylor drag queen -- Liz, is that you?

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Arlington, Va.: Is there a lot of resentment from performers and customers at the establishments gone due to the baseball park? There seems to be a risk factor here - the establishments developed a not so pleasant area for themselves at low rent. But didn't the fact there might be redevelopment someday enter their minds as a possibility ?

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: There's varying levels of resentment. But you have to keep in mind, displacement is a very old narrative for gays and drags in Washington. There was the old gay bar area along 9th street that fell to redevelopment, there were bars downtown near the bus stations that were closed, a number of historic African American clubs that allowed drag were closed due to the riots. It's a fact of life that fuels some of their drama. As to why they didn't take the potential for redevelopment into account, I think many see their lack of planning as a tragic mistake. Mame Dennis makes the point that it was such an undesirable area, they thought they were safe and just never came up with a Plan B.

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Blair Michaels, Alexandria, Va.: Great story Lonnae. If you're looking for a place to send your bridal party, I'm currently on CAST @ TOWN. Every Friday and Saturday night and we have at least 2-5 bridal parties each week.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Little plug from Blair Michaels, former Academy Best Actress. Even out of drag, she's got perfectly arched brows, long elegant fingers (which sport a knuckle sized rhinestone ring) and she's the first person I ever saw wave a jeweled scepter to show love to the performers on stage. That's when I was really like, okay, we are not in Kansas anymore...

Hugs, Blair!

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Washington, DC: Ziegfeld's is going to re-open at the site of the former Club Lime in Southwest. Do you have any news as to when it will open and if the Academy is planning on participating in shows there again?

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: You know I heard that over and over in my reporting. It was supposed to open Memorial Day weekend, then Fourth of July, now I hear Labor Day. Apparently owners are just trying to answer a number of neighborhood questions and stipulations and then they'll be able to move forward. Carl Rizzi hasn't said whether The Academy will hold shows there but I'd bet lots of members will go and folks will be looking to see if Ella Fitzgerald returns with her "Ladies of Illusion" show.

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Arlington, VA: What do you think the reluctance of other neighborhoods to allow drag shows relates to? Is there any crime related to this or is it just some sort of squeamishness in having some "strange" looking people wandering around. I used to live near Dupont Circle where you train yourself not to notice anything overly outre.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Thanks for asking. I think it's complicated. I talked to Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas, Jr. His ward, which includes light industrial zones, same as the club area in Southeast, was much discussed as being a place where the clubs could maybe move en masse. There was a great deal of neighborhood opposition, some of it homophobic, but much of it expressing the same concern as the establishment of any nightclub area. Parking, noise, litter. People get drunk and vomit on the streets. He didn't object to the clubs being gay, he objected to all the other attendant problems. That said, the clubs being gay has been a real problem with their relocation.

Incidentally, Club 55, where the Academy hosted shows on Sunday, was a straight "gentleman's club" during the week--was even featured on HBO's Real Sex. They haven't been able to reopen either.

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Washington, D.C.: As a gay man, I'm very turned off by anything drag or drag related. Does that mean they deserve not to have a venue? No.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Thanks for writing. I encountered that sentiment some. It was one of many nuances that came through as I did my reporting. Drag is not everyone's cup of tea. But as you point out, not sure that should mean it shouldn't have its own space.

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Alexandria, Va.: Lonnae, I've been doing female impersonation for 26 years now and I have to say not once in those 26 years have I had wished pity on myself. One of the comments that was left on the site must have been from someone who's got one idea what it takes to do this. It's an ART form. Someone once said the greatest form of flattery is impersonation. Well, if that be the case, thousands of ladies are being flattered DAILY.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: You know, you might be on to something. I'm pretty girly, and I sometimes found myself wishing I had on a little more makeup, or was wearing something more fabulous when I was around the queens! It was really revelatory to watch them reinterpret the femininity we women take for granted. Made me want to up my game.

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Washington, DC: Thank you for the long, overdue attention to an important part of DC life and culture. While I enjoyed learning and reliving the history of DC Drag, I thought the article was incomplete. There is a new chapter to be written with the reopening of Ziegfeld's/Secrets at the old Pier 9. Allan Carroll, original owner of Ziegfeld's and the Phase I (perhaps the oldest Lesbian bar in the country at 38 years) should have his latest vision open in the next month or two.

With that being said, I thought the article barely gleaned the political hotbed of homophobia that surrounded the zoning decision that made it virtually impossible for these establishment's to relocate. While, each council member hypocritically voted to welcome 2 sexually-oriented venues into their wards, there aren't any sexually-oriented zones in the majority of the wards.

I understand that this wasn't the focus of the article but would like for you to comment on the council's hypocrisy and Jim Graham's caving in on bad legislation instead of tabling it.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: As I said earlier, I've been hearing about the reopening then postponed reopening of Ziegfeld's for months. I think I'll believe it when I see it.

Jim Graham seemed to be in a fairly impossible position from what I could tell. Hard to please some gay community activists for whom nothing short of a "gay Disneyland" or area with the exact same bars, theaters and sex clubs would due. Hard to balance that desire out with councilmen who are answerable to communities and neighborhoods who wouldn't want any kind of "Disneyland" with strip clubs and sex clubs. He also seemed very out front in at least trying to come up with a compromise, although many, such as yourself, view it as fatally flawed.

Remember the words of former Mayor Williams about how nearly impossible it is to sit a gay entertainment district in a major American city.

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Chicago: We have Wrigley Field right next door to one of the country's largest gay neighborhoods (example: Jennifer Holiday performed a Sunday evening concert here last night in the middle of a street festival!).

Is it realistic that the ballpark could coexist with an official/unofficial gay-borhood in DC?

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: It could have been realistic if that's what folks on both sides had worked toward. Not easy, but doable perhaps, especially if, as I say, some sort of arts or historic designation could have been given to some of these places.

Of course the other side of that argument would be those in the gay community who wouldn't want the authenticity of their places compromised. These are complicated questions that continue to resurface every time the city redevelops an area. Worth serious consideration in advance of bulldozers next time, I think.

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DC: So, totally OFF the topic of venues, but on the topic of drag - years ago, I bought shoes at Tops, on F St. Loved that place.

They were an early sponsor of the 17th St Drag Race. They carried shoes for the drag queens. So as a woman with big feet, I loved the place because this meant they carried my shoe size. too.

But a carjacking and a shooting led to Tops's closure, and now I have nowhere to buy shoes.

Where are the drag queens buying their shoes these days?

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Queens:

Anywhere a guy can get a good pair of heels?

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Olney, Md.: This was one of the most sensitive and moving stories I have ever read. This community of artists, who not only excel in the visual arts of illusion, but can entertain by performing on stage as well, demonstrates a creativity and resilience that to me, puts them on par with all our other more recognized local artists. Your story also revealed to me that in my more conventional life, I have taken a lot for granted in terms of acceptance and fulfillment. Thank you for sharing this story in such a thoughtful and courageous way.

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Thanks for your kind words.

It also made me consider how difficult the struggle for self acceptance, community acceptance and just a place in the world and a way to walk through it can be for some. Finding that maybe accounts for some of the joy we saw on the face of Billie Ross in the cover shot.

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Alexandria, VA: I notice in the article that the Apex was the only drag bar listed. But after doing some research, I have found there are at least three other clubs that have drag shows. I think they are the Be Bar, The Town Danceboutique, and Freddie Beach Bar in Arlington. My question to you is, do the girls in your article perform at those clubs? Also, are there any other clubs that do drag that I didn't list? Thank you!

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Some of the girls do perform at these venues. You didn't mention Rehab in Silver Spring and I've seen Athena Couture (as Amy Winehouse) performing there.

Ella Fitzgerald has performed at Rehab, Apex on Saturday nights and Freddie's in Crystal City.

One of the challenges is fitting the performance to the audience. The queens had a following at the clubs in Southeast and could rely on their reputations and showmanship to keep their audience. The crowds at many of these other clubs tend to be much younger. I don't think Helen Reddy goes over so well when the 18 and over crowd is Fergielicious.

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Alexandria, VA: Are you kidding! Thousands of places on line...one of my favorites is www.Sexyshoes.com! - Blair

Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Okay, here we go with an answer to the shoes! Wear them well.

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Lonnae O'Neal Parker: Okay folks, we're out of time. On behalf of my editor David, drag name "Pebbles," who doesn't perform, but just gets a little dramatic on deadline, I'd like to thank you for reading, and chatting. Hope we get to do it again real soon.

Best,

Lonnae

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