7th Annual Miss Lez Pageant Gets New Venue

The "Lez Event of the Season" comes to Brooklyn Thursday, June 7, when Murray Hill presents the seventh annual Miss Lez Pageant at Luna Lounge, 361 Metropolitan Avenue.

The event, hosted by Hill, commences at 8 p.m., and promises a perfect mix of brash, trash and pizzazz, with "womyn" competing in a pageant designed to be a wildly provocative, insane, jaw-dropping alternative beauty contest that blows the lid off of "gender representation."

Seven contestants representing the different "scenes" in the community, such as Miss Go NYC, Miss Snapshot, Miss I Heart Brooklyn Girls, Miss Cattyshack, Miss Metropolitan, Miss Starlette, and Miss Wildcard, reinterpret the categories Platform, Swimsuit, Evening Gown, Interview, and Talent for "the title," $100 cash (in singles), drink tickets, a plastic yet priceless tiara and a bedazzling sash made moments before the show. Plus, for the second year, Miss Congeniality will be awarded to the contestant who gave their all but didn't quite grab the gold ring.

The Miss Lez Pageant takes the traditional, out-dated "straight" beauty pageant and turns it upside-down, inside-out, and outside-in by giving queer womyn the chance to interpret what a pageant means to them, in any way they want, even if that includes wearing a bathing suit made out of deli bags for the Swimsuit Competition, or reading a poem that was pulled from the nether regions for Talent. The result: an up-to-date, on-the-edge, all-inclusive, unpredictable, anything goes lesbian and transgender extravaganza. This year, the pageant moves to a larger venue to accommodate the huge crowd that comes out every year. Also, to celebrate the event's 7th year, Hill has added a seventh contestant and special 7th judge, Kathleen Hanna.

The infamous pageant itself is highly competitive, loads of fun, totally gangbusters, and is a reminder of why, if there is one place to live and to be yourself, New York is it (despite the proliferation of glass condos, American Apparels, and CHASE banks). There will be guest performances, dancing throughout the night, and DJs to keep the party going post-pageant.

The pageant started seven years ago in the Lower East Side at the newly-opened Slipper Room, where Murray was doing his weekly show. At that time, the East Village and Lower East Side was a central 'hood for queer women with club nights and bars like Meow Mix. The pageant for many years was titled "Miss L.E.S." for the Lower East Side. However, as the L.E.S. changed, clubs closed, red ropes closed in, bistros appeared, and the lady L.E.S. queer scene vanished, eventually moving toward Brooklyn.

Also, over the past few years, the name has changed because of more acceptance and visibility of transgender people in the scene. Last year, gender bending was taken to new heights and, for the first time, a female-to-male transgender person won the pageant. Glenn Marla swept to victory by tap dancing to an Ethel Merman tune in a full-body spandex suite and running on the "back fat is the new cleavage" platform. She has gone onto a fruitful club life performing and go-go dancing, and will be performing at this year's pageant. The New York Times pegged Glenn as an "obese transvestite in tights." (Other past pageant winners have gone on to successful performance careers also, including Daniela Sea who came in last place in 2004, and who is not a character on the L-Word.)

Murray Hill, dubbed by the Times as "a New York institution," is proud to offer a fully entertaining and accepting environment for all walks of life. The pageant is a celebration of just that, knocking down the conventional notions of gender with humor.

Tickets cost $15 in advance, or $20 at the door. Tickets available at http://www.ticketweb.com