Thanks to RuPaul and his amazing “Drag Race,” most people now know what a drag queen is — but there’s a new underground scene popping up in London that’s threatening to steal the crown … the drag king movement. Just as drag queens are men with women’s clothing and makeup, drag kings are women … cross-dressing as men. And there are a lot of them.
In London, the scene took off last year when, for the first time ever, a (biological) woman won the popular Drag Idol UK contest. The winner, Drag King LoUis CYfer (real name: Lucy Jane Parkinson), has been performing as a man for several years, since leaving college.
I met up with Lucy at the bar She Soho in London. Not yet in drag, Lucy explained how she got into the scene.
“I’m a performer … and I had gender identity issues,” she said. She also didn’t have much guidance — at home or from the medical community. At one point, a doctor told her she had “two weeks” to decide whether she wanted to be a biological man. (She doesn’t.)
“So I started exploring,” Lucy said. Despite dating a woman and working primarily out of lesbian spot She Soho, Lucy doesn’t identify as gay. “I’ve dated men before,” she said. “It’s about the person, not the gender.”
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/vip.nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/03/gender1.jpg?w=300)
Then it was my turn. Lucy offered to make me over, and I figured, “Why not?”
I didn’t expect to feel so … awkward. It was weird pretending to be another gender — feeling like me, kind of, but looking in the mirror to see “Sheriff Paul,” my male alter ego. The way I know myself was not reflected in the mirror: I was a pretty convincing guy in low light — even more so after a couple of Scotches.
It made me think, this is what people with gender dysphoria go through. Every day. But in real life. It was enlightening and uncomfortable. I realized how lucky I am to be able to look in the mirror and truly identify and feel comfortable with who and what I am … and to not have been born with the wrong body or have been forced into a gender role that doesn’t fit.
True respect for drag queens and kings and transgender people everywhere.