The Beauty President

Not many are aware of a piece of history that was made in the 1992 U.S. presidential race. A Black, openly queer drag queen named Joan Jett Blakk, ran a campaign as a write-in candidate. “If a bad actor can be elected president, why not a good drag queen?” was one of Blakk’s campaign slogans and she promised to make America “more fabulous, more fruitful and more glamorous.” Thirty years later, the male activist behind the persona, Terence Alan Smith, reflects back on this audacious bid to draw attention to LGBTQ+ rights and the AIDS crisis.