Drag-queen homecoming queen: GMU

by Mark Silva

This just in from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., from the heart of a sprawling standard metropolitan statistical area that is turning the old dominion, the commonwealth of Virginia, from red to blue on the political spectrum:

Students at George Mason University have elected a drag queen as homecoming queen.

Ryan Allen pulled a cultural, and figurative, mind-you, smack-down on two women for the title. This is the state school that gained national fame for its run at college basketball's Final Four three years ago.

Now GMU is staking a new claim to fame: Reann Ballslee, the nom de plumage of the drag-turned-homecoming queen.

Allen, who is gay and performs in drag at area nightclubs, entered the campus competition as a joke. Yet now he happily views his victory as proof that a diverse student body has come of the modern-age.

The senior from Virginia's Goochland County won the pageant at a sold-out homecoming basketball game against Northeastern.