NewsDay.com – Hana Alberts – Newsday Staff Writer
Crystal Mack’s sweet 16 party had all the customary flourishes. A sparkly purple dress bought for the occasion, a spotlight dance to “My Girl” with her dad, a 40-minute candle-lighting ceremony, and – a drag queen.
Halfway through the party, a RuPaul impersonator bounded onto the dance floor, clad in a red miniskirt that clung to muscular legs and 5-inch silver stilettos in women’s size 13.
Drag queens are appearing more and more frequently as entertainers at sweet 16s, anniversary parties, corporate functions and even bar and bat mitzvahs. Party-throwers, their guests, performers and the agents who book them say the trend is a sign that drag has, in part, shed its history of taboo and found audiences beyond the gay club scene.