Some queens go beyond their wigs, outfits, and flawless makeup to redefining drag, fashion and culture all while challenging stereotypes and stigmas around gender, race and sexuality. Indeed, most of us would feel blessed if we accomplished half of their achievements in our lifetime. Here, at GiGi, we wanted to honour just some of these queens of queens. With so many memorable queens who have roamed this earth and gifted us with their humour, personalities, talent, beauty, and more, it was quite the challenge selecting only four to focus on. Time can’t erase the impact these icons have made and the footprints they have left. Starting with, yours truly, Divine!
Divine
Born Harris Glenn Milstead in 1945, Baltimore, and renowned the “drag queen of the century” by People Magazine upon his death in 1988; you may not believe it but in his childhood, Divine was a bit of an outcast and a shy kid. It wasn’t until the age of 16 when he met underground filmmaker John Waters; also known as “The Pope of Trash” according to writer William Burroughs, that Divine flourished. Waters wanted her to be the Godzilla of drag queens, calling her the “most beautiful woman in the world, almost”. Together, this dynamic duo gave rise to transgressive and delightfully trashy films such as Pink Flamingo, Serial Mom, Multiple Maniacs, Hairspray and many other pictures where Divine proved herself to be a talented actress. The queen was also a club performer, successfully producing various singles in the 1970s and 80s such as ‘I’m So Beautiful’ and even appeared on the U.K music show Top of the Pops with her song ‘You Think You’re A Man’.
Divine was iconic, unapologetically big, and self-consciously vulgar. As far as her looks went, it was very in-your-face and aggressive with ostentatious makeup looks and outfits that flaunted her curves; redefining the conventions of drag and challenging who was allowed to perform gender and how. “Divine took a bigger-than-life character… I think she made RuPaul possible,” says Film Historian George Figgs in Divine’s 1998 documentary. Similarly, in Harper’s Bazaar, drag queen Psycadella Facade speculates how we could’ve had Divine’s Drag Race instead of RuPaul’s had Divine’s success not been cut short. At only 42 years old, in 1988, Divine was found dead at the Regency Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles from a heart attack.
Although Divine considered herself more of an actor than a drag queen, her influence was ample. Not only did she fearlessly shift drag from beauty pageant styles, but she also was the inspiration for the villain, Ursula, from Little Mermaid– very few of us can say they have a Disney character influenced by them. Divine is even displayed as a 10-foot statue in the American Museum of Visionary Art in Baltimore. She is a legend with one hell of a personality who daringly paved the way for many queens to come. She is simply, and truly divine.
Marsha P. Johnson
Born Malcolm Michaels Jr. in 1945, New Jersey, Marsha was and continues to be a prominent figure in the LGBTQIA+ community. As an outspoken advocate of gay rights in the 1969 Stonewall uprising, she’s considered by many as the forefront of the gay liberation movement in the United States. She is also the co-founder of the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), helping homeless transgender youth.
In addition to being an activist, Johnson was also a drag queen, sex worker and a prevalent part of street life in New York’s Greenwich Village where she relocated in 1966 to find herself, with one bag of clothes and $15 dollars to her name. During this transition period, she was initially referred to as Malcolm and Black Marsha. Later, she settled on Marsha P. Johnson, the “P” standing for “Pay It No Mind”; a phrase she used when asked about her gender as a gender-nonconforming individual during a time where this was not widespread or acceptable.
With a liking for feminine clothing since she was five years old, Marsha found tremendous joy in being a drag queen, quickly establishing her presence in the village through her vibrant outfits which she would tend to scavenge for in rubbish bins. She was usually seen wearing bright red heels, colorful wigs rendered with artificial fruits and flowers sourced from the streets of Manhattan’s Flower District, stacks of jewelry and glittering dresses. She occasionally performed on stage in ‘high drag’, but primarily in grassroots groups such as the drag performance group Hot Peaches whom she successfully toured the world with.
Marsha’s body was found in the Hudson River in 1992, soon after the Pride parade. Initially ruled as a suicide, the case has been reopened as a possible murder. Despite her tragic death, her legacy lives on and her story of determination in the face of oppression echoes to this day.
“I’d like to let you know Marsha, that your fire never went out. I see it on the streets, in the bars and dance floors, on the piers. I see it in the eyes of those who are fearlessly themselves. I see it in black and brown queer and trans people. Marsha, your fire never went out. It spread like wildfire and set us ablaze. I will fight for you forever, Marsha,” says West Dakota, a Brooklyn-based drag queen said to possess a star quality to rival Lady Gaga, according to Vogue.
Mario Montez
Born René Rivera in 1935, Puerto Rico, but New York made, Mario Montez, whose name is a homage to the iconic Dominican actress, Maria Montez; was a substantial influence in the history of film, theatre, art and queer performance. His poised and glamorous drag made him a successful figure in the avant-garde, camp, and underground film culture in the 60s, becoming a fixture in films by Andy Warhol as his first drag “superstar” and a favourite of artist Jack Smith.
Presented with a lifetime achievement award in queer film by the Berlin International Film Festival and crowned “the great drag superstar,” Montez was a sought-after actor, making appearances in 13 films by Andy Warhol such as Harlot, Camp, More Milk, Yvette and The Chelsea Girls as well as in Flaming Creatures and the unfinished film, Normal Love by Jack Smith. Other features included films by Puerto Rican filmmaker José Rodríguez-Soltero and Brazilian visual artist Hélio Oiticica.
As a member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theater Company, Montez would design and make costumes for himself as well as other cast members by refashioning clothing found at thrift shops and trash piles which he labelled, “Montez Creations”. On stage, he was known for his timely humour, over-the-top acting and versatility in capturing the essence of femininity independent of what role he was playing. “Whether he is playing The Wife, The Mother, The Whore or The Virgin, Montez captures the ineffable essence of femininity,” says Charles Ludlam, founder of the Ridiculous Theatrical Company.
Although Montez performed in drag, as a devout Roman Catholic, his relationship with drag was an intricate one, calling it “going into costume” and being fearful of revealing this to his family. According to Warhol in the book, Popism, “The only spiritual comfort he allowed himself was the logic that even though God surely didn’t like him for going into drag, that still, if he really hated him, he would have struck him dead.”
This queen, fascinated with the Hollywood glitz and considered a royal in the world of underground filmmaking, was every inch a star, one which shines to this day. Bringing drag to the theatre as well as representation for Latinos in the US cinema with his striking performances.
Montez died in 2013 in Key West, Florida, at the age of 78. The cause according to Claire K. Henry, senior curatorial assistant of the Andy Warhol Film Project, was complications of a stroke.
Sylvester
‘The Cockettes; Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy, 1969-1972’.
Born Sylvester James in 1947, Los Angeles, this queen is the creator of one of disco’s impermeable classics, an everlasting Pride anthem and a groundbreaking hit in Pop history, You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’. One of the first openly gender fluid musicians, Sylvester embraced the gender spectrum at a time not particularly warm to the LGBTQIA+ community. His emotive and soaring falsetto voice was rooted in Gospel and Blues, creating a template that was long followed into the future by the Pop industry.
His life as a musician began at a young age during his church choir performances at regional Gospel Music events. Later as a teenager, Sylvester joined The Disquotays, a group of passionate and fearless black teenage drag queens, “somewhere between a street gang and a sorority house,” says a previous member to The Guardian. The group would courageously defy California’s law against public cross-dressing by wandering the streets in full-drag and throwing scandalous parties. They also joined the 1965 Watts riots, a series of violent confrontations by Los Angeles police and residents of Watts, caused by the arrest of an African American man by a white California Highway Patrol officer on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
Outrageously gay, Sylvester was all about high fashion drama. He flaunted fur coats, satin and disco sequins in his soulful performances where he was known for his movie-like stage entrances. Ironically, he preferred to work with straight musicians as he would say, “There’s only room for one queen in this band and I’m it.” Despite his preference, in 1969 when he moved to San Francisco, Sylvester was invited to join the cabaret troupe, The Cockettes. There, he was given a star spot in one of their revues, signing ‘The Big City Blues’, becoming their main attraction. However, with critics not embracing the group’s stage insanity but Sylvester’s authentic Blues, he decided to go solo.
In addition to ‘You Make Me Feel’, he made other successful records such as ‘Dance Stars’, ‘Do Ya Wanna Funk’ and a live album called Living Proof. It is hard to pinpoint the root of his success as simply a product of his extravagant personality or outrageous style, but many agree that it is the modern figure he would portray as a woman one day and man the other during an era when this was unheard of. “Sometimes, folks make us feel strange, but we’re not strange. And those folks – they’ll just have to catch up,” says Sylvester to a New York audience in 1978 while enjoying the fame his record had brought him. In 1988 and only 41 years old, Sylvester was found dead in his bed in San Francisco of complications from AIDS.
This era-transcending record means Sylvester’s relevance as a staple of the 70s-music industry, and gender anarchist is still “mighty real.” He was a rebel and radical visionary who turned everything that could be the basis of his marginalisation into superstardom. Not bad for a queen who was just “trying to get on the radio.”
Want to know more about drag history, see our article on a little drag through history.