Crystal LaBeija

Crystal LaBeija was an American drag queen and trans woman who founded the House of LaBeija in 1977. The House is often credited as starting the house system in ball culture. She became a mother figure for homeless LGBTQ youth. LaBeija originally worked and competed on the Manhattan drag circuit under the name of Crystal LaAsia, before changing her name to LaBeija as Latin queens kept calling her La Belleza (Spanish for "the beauty"). In the 1960s and 1970s, drag queens of color were expected to whiten their appearance to help their chances at winning competitions and they often faced racist environments. LaBeija was one of only a few African American drag queens to be awarded a "Queen of the Ball" title at a drag ball organized by whites during this era. In 1967, she was crowned Miss Manhattan. LaBeija subsequently competed in the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant held in New York City Town Hall, a competition documented in The Queen (1968). In a scene towards the end of the documentary, LaBeija, upset with the perceived racism of the white-run balls, accused the pageant organizer Flawless Sabrina of rigging the judging in the favor of a white queen, Rachel Harlow. Refusing to participate further in a discriminatory system, LaBeija worked with another black drag queen, Lottie LaBeija, to host a ball just for black queens. She agreed to participate in the event so long as she was highlighted in the ball. This event, the first to be hosted by a House, was titled "Crystal & Lottie LaBeija presents the first annual House of Labeija Ball at Up the Downstairs Case on West 115th Street & 5th Avenue in Harlem, NY" and took place in 1972. It was the first time the term "House" was used, coined by LaBeija in order to market the event, which would be a huge success. LaBeija continued to work as a drag performer and activist throughout the 1970s and 1980s. RuPaul's first experience of a drag performance was seeing LaBeija perform a lipsync routine at a nightclub in Atlanta in 1979. In 2019, Rolling Stone reported that LaBeija died of liver failure in 1982. However, the New York Times reported in 1993 that Labeija was still alive and had attended a revival of The Queen at the Film Forum in New York. The article reported that LaBeija was still "a fixture in the drag world" and had a reunion of sorts with contest winner Harlow. "She was very very lovely to me," Harlow is quoted as saying. "She came up to me and kissed me and said hello... She left before the end."