"An unprecedented look at drag culture and its history in Atlantic City. A must-read for queens and their fans!"

Sapphira Cristal, Miss'd American 2020

"I have long wondered how the Miss America pageant maintains a conservative appeal while ignoring the known influence and involvement by the gay community. If you've ever known or loved Miss America, you need this history lesson."

Erin O'Flaherty, Miss Missouri 2016, first openly lesbian Miss America contestant

"After 30 years in the drag business, I was surprised and elated to learn so much about drag/LGBTQ+ history in Atlantic City. The in-depth exploration of how Miss America and Miss’d America were connected and disconnected is fascinating."

Sherry Vine, Drag Legend

"Through a highly entertaining, insightful, and informative combination of history, ethnography, and gender studies, Greene uncovers the long-standing influence that Atlantic City's LGBTQ+ community has had on the Miss America Pageant."

Rusty Barrett, author of From Drag Queens to Leathermen: Language, Gender, and Gay Male Subcultures

"The subject matter is fascinating."

Gay & Lesbian Review

"Greene’s prose is delightful and imaginative, the work standing out as both an illustration of the horrors of hegemonic oppression and the beauty of an adaptable subculture. Drag Queens and Beauty Queens adds to the growing body of work that provides insight into the development and practice of gender norms and their influence on the tapestry of national identity formation, maintenance, and adaptation." 

Gender & Society

"All of this is told by Greene through attentive ethnographic  fieldwork,  with  transcript excerpts often conveying not just the words but the animated community conversations from which she draws. She makes productive use of sources like Facebook pages dedicated to Atlantic City memories, which can sometimes offer richer LGBTQ archives than more recognized repositories. Ultimately, Drag Queens and Beauty Queens is not as expansively or densely theorized as, say, Marlon Bailey’s landmark ethnography of the Detroit ballroom scene, Butch Queens Up in Pumps, but its trade-off is  greater accessibility.  This would  make a  productive text  in undergraduate courses, where the Miss/Miss’d America comparative analysis would surely spark  discussion. Greene’s ethical commitment to producing a readable text for the drag community itself is also to be commended. With this book, Laurie Greene has expanded the canon of New Jersey LGBTQ history and offered a valuable model of community-based scholarship."

NJ Studies