The creators of the pop culture and fashion website Tom+Lorenzo decode the references behind the recurring elements of the most queer show on the planet, from the library to the runway, including the handsome men and the messages written with lipstick on the mirror. But you don’t need to have watched Drag Race (what are you waiting for?) to enjoy the moments and legendary figures from the drag world that inspire it.

As the authors warn, this is a book to read with one hand… with the other, you’ll want to search for videos, songs, or more information on Google about the amazing characters parading through its pages.

We witness the Stonewall riots through the legendary Marsha P. Johnson, the queen who walked around New York with flowers in her hair, and Stormé DeLarverie, the drag king who patrolled Greenwich Village in a suit jacket. We hear Crystal LaBeija, founder and matriarch of the formidable House of LaBeija, raise her voice to claim Black beauty at the Miss Gay America pageant. We sneak into the Harlem ballrooms where vogue was born, the dance popularized by Madonna, and into the clubs of 1990s London with Leigh Bowery and his impossible looks. All of this with the music of The Rocky Horror Picture Show playing in the background. This is the kind of history they didn’t teach you in school.

Author biography

Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez have been a couple for a couple of decades. In 2006, they left their respective jobs to pour all their knowledge of film, music, fashion, and advertising into a queer-focused website initially centered on television called Project RunGay. Fifteen years later, the website Tom & Lorenzo, where they critique television, pop culture, and fashion, attracts an audience now measured in millions. Tom and Lorenzo collaborate with various media outlets such as People, Forbes, and The Huffington Post. In 2014, they published their first book Everyone Wants to Be Me or Do Me.