Pageant Queens
For these queens, drag is the real deal. They know how to slay the game and are fierce competitors. They love some drama and usually are the ones spilling the tea and throwing shade. They’re also polished and don’t crack under pressure, meaning they can lip-sync for their lives. However, at times they are shunned for being too close-minded, overly competitive and uncreative.
Pageantry is integral to the drag community since the Stonewall era in the 1970s. These queens flaunt elaborate and breath-taking gowns, along with captivating personalities and more minimalistic makeup looks. Norma Kristie, who was Miss Gay Arkansas of 1973, and Shan Covington, Miss Gay South of 1976, were pivotal queens in pageantry.
Despite her short reign, former Miss Continental, Naysha Lopez, was a memorable queen of season eight who brought her Latina spirit to the stage, “Hola, beauty is here!”
Remembered for her polished, glamorous, red-carpet inspired and hyper-feminine looks, two looks stand out from her time on the show. One being her metallic light-pink, 80s inspired one-piece, which she wore during the roller girl challenge, where she graciously managed to fall on her butt in front of the judges. The other, her signature neon-body suit, which flaunted her curves. “To this day, I still think my outfit looked so much better than everyone else’s on that episode, even though I went home during that episode.”
When she was interviewed by the Observer, she said she’d noticed that most pageant queens never make it to the end, noting that RuPaul herself actually has never won a pageant and perhaps holds a grudge.