LATimes.com – Molly Hennessy-Fiske – Times Staff Writer
The proximity of the president doesn’t stop a service group from its fundraising, festivities.
Waco, Texas ? On Saturday night, as President Bush prepared to celebrate Father’s Day on his ranch in nearby Crawford, members of the Royal, Sovereign and Imperial Court of the Central Texas Empire gathered in downtown Waco for their annual drag queen coronation.
In its 13th year, the event was part pageant ? with choreographed show tune numbers ? and part fundraiser for gay and lesbian and other causes. Guests in beaded gowns, wedding dresses and nuns’ habits blew bubbles, preened and speculated about who would win the vote at night’s end to succeed the Crystal Dragonfly Diva Fairy, empress of them all.
The Empress of Dallas was there, a Judy Garland brunet in a gold-and-black beaded gown, as was the Reigning Empress of Austin, a redhead called Topaz with a signature faux topaz medallion.
“We really do it big in Texas,” said Topaz, a.k.a. Michael Hill.
The International Imperial Court System is a community service organization with 72 chapters, seven in Texas. About 150 members turned out for the event, including 27 people from Waco, converging on the same Hilton hotel where the president’s staff holed up while he was on his ranch.