'Baby Drag Queens' Taking Over the Ivy League!

Gerry Visco

When I went to Columbia University, there were no drag queens in sight except for an occasional professor who'd accidentally put on his wife's halter top.

But the other night at the very same school -- 800 years later, mind you -- the place was positively crawling with them.

It was IvyQ 2011's Fantasy Ball, and as a judge (along with Gerry Visco and Daniel Nardicio), I was witness to all sorts of drag queens in their embryo stages, many of them flouncing and voguing like virgins, for the very first time.

And I have to say I was deeply moved!

As I watched these kids sashay tentatively out of the Ivy League womb, there was something super-sweet and sincere about the whole thing that touched my aged drag soul!

The organizer, Madame Sharonda, MC'd the event, starting it out with a sultry lip-synch of "At Last."

And on came the contestants -- a tall guy in a blindingly shiny outfit, a hot drag king in a suit and an attitude, and a chunky guy in space-age drag who almost flunked the Q&A segment when he admitted he'd never heard of the Golden Girls.

But he did a quick save by saying his favorite Spice Girl was Baby Spice. ("Correct," I applauded.)

But the winner, far and away, was Aphrodite, who vamped around the stage, sometimes on all fours, and did a drop-dead Beyonce, complete with flawless lip-synch and unlit cig puffing.

Dean's list, for sure!

Photos by Gerry Visco.