Just minutes before she relinquished her crown to Tequila Rose, Jezebell, the first winner of the Queen of the Triangle pageant, sat down with Recess to talk about his life in women's clothing.
Recess: How badly do you need to be on that stage?
Jezebell: If I don't go out there for a couple nights, I absolutely feel as if I need to��even if it's not onstage. I'll go to an IHOP or a Denny's and try to freak people out. Last year I dressed up for the Britney concert and these little teenage girls came up to me and said, "Oh, you're so pretty." Then, I said in a rough voice, "Yeah, and I can play basketball too!"
When did you come to the realization that you were a drag queen?
I have been interested in female beauty my whole life. I have an obsession with plastic surgery and what it does to people.
I heard your mother and little sister accompanied you at last year's N.C. Pride Parade. What does your family think of your drag career?
I was shocked when they came with me last year because I thought my mom didn't want to expose my 10-year-old sister to it, but she really wanted to support me. It was great being with my family there because dressing in drag can hurt families. Parents may not always understand why we do it, but it's great when they can accept that we do it.
What's been your most embarrassing moment onstage?
When I first started at the CC [a local gay bar], I thought I was fabulous. So, this one night I decided to dance to J-Lo's "Love Don't Cost a Thing." I had these huge breasts, and I wore a revealing V-shaped dress that basically only covered up my breasts and my crotch and it had all these pennies attached to it. Once I started dancing, my breasts were falling all over the place, and the pennies were dropping. Now, I know to super glue everything on��even my earrings.
You're a beauty queen, so I have to ask the obligatory question: If you could change one thing to make the world a better place, what would it be?
People seem very uptight, and it takes so little to put your foot in someone else's shoes and not be intimidated by what you don't know. Just because I'm gay, people think that I'll hit on everybody, and just because I dress in drag, people think that I'm a pervert. In truth, I'm just another 22-year-old male. People should have a more considerate, open-minded view because why should certain people have to change just because society says it's wrong?
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