Lady Bunny
Pepper LeBeija The subject of Jennie Livingston’s documentary Paris Is Burning, Pepper LeBeija was remembered in The New York Times as the last queen of the Harlem drag balls. A married heterosexual (but who preferred “she” pronouns), LeBeija founded the first of the four famous Harlem drag houses and outlived the founders of the others. Doing so, she provided a home for many who were rejected by their families and wanted to be a part of New York’s thriving gay scene.
Part of the Atlanta club scene around the same time as RuPaul, Lady Bunny would become a fixture in New York nightlife during the Club Kids era. In the mid-1980s, she founded Wigstock, a street festival celebrating drag culture. The festival that started in the East Village eventually drew thousands annually even as city leaders pushed the event around the metropolis.
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