Chapter 29

It turned out that the Santa Fe drag community—enhanced by a slew of special guests from Albuquerque and even Colorado Springs and Amarillo—was both bigger and more diverse than Danny’s time at The Crossing could ever have prepared him for. The Crossing’s queens were reasonably diverse to look at—Raima Reason was Indian, Rose Marian Thyme was over fifty, Midnight Eaton was Latina andfat—but all demonstrated a similar skill set. Rose Marian didn’t put quite the effort into her makeup that, say, Midnight did, and Phyllis didn’t seem to hold herself to the same lip-synching standards as the other queens, but they each put their best foot forward and brought a certain level of enthusiasm and creativity to their craft, which Danny would have figured was kind of the point. And, as will happen, a larger gathering of the community brought a larger cross-section of queens to the stage, and wildly varying levels of talent and commitment sashayed through the spotlight.