WashingtonPost.com – By Lonnae O’Neal Parker
One of the Washington drag scene’s most pivotal figures illuminates a long-secret world
For more than a dozen years, Mame had presided over the weekly performances at Club 55, as president of the gay theatrical organization, the Academy of Washington Inc. That alter ego was the most vital half of Carl Rizzi’s double life. Then there came the first unfathomable whispers that a new baseball stadium might push them out; that the drag queens could lose their corner of the world. Some in the gay community, which had been in the area more than 30 years, held public meetings and protests.