Beauty Queen

"I loved it ... . It's a page-tumer and I couldn't put it down. And there were tears, my tears, at the end. Patricia Nell Warren has written what no one but she has been able to write, an exciting, fast-paced, realistic gay novel about gay people caught up in the web of their times .... I am an unashamed elitist and I dislike most gay fiction because it too often relies on sentiment and lots of sex .... but this book appeals to a sentiment that is right and true, without which my elitism isn't worth the parchment it's written on; and that sentiment, that ideal, is gay freedom .... This one is her best."    — Byrne Fone in The Advocate
    "Jeannie Laird Colter is an ex-beauty queen, actress and politician making her ... comeback in a campaign for governor of New York----She regards homosexuals as perverts
    and infidels, vows to hound them until they see the light ... Jeannie's crusade disrupts the gay community, provokes violence and death, and in the end exposes her own father's long-standing homosexual liaison." — Publisher’s Weekly
    "In her most audacious and compelling novel yet, the author of The Front Runner... writes a story of power and sex in the public and private lives of a group of extraordinary people."
    — William Morrow & Co.
    "A venomous portrait of irrational prejudice." — Booklist
    "Warren tackles the impact of anti-gay political rhetoric. [She] creates a trio of diverse gay characters standing in opposition to the ex-beauty queen turned state senator, including two police officers who are her first major lesbian character and her first major gay exotic character. Told from four different points of view, The Beauty Queen also addresses issues of gay bashing . . . and the psychological strains of closetedness."
    — Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage
    "Take that, Anita Bryant!... Appeals to the committed and the curious."    —     Kirkus    Review
    "This novel concerns a woman politician who campaigns against gay rights in New York City. The impact of her campaign on the life of the city's gays, as represented by several gay policemen and women and their lovers, is revealed sympathetically."    —     Library Journal
    "In my latest reading, I found The Beauty Queen more urgently relevant than ever. On every front, from every quarter of the country, the religious right is attacking us, using the same tactics described in TBQ. The war is here."
    — Ronald L. Donaghe, author of Common Sons
    "The Beauty Queen is not only an entertaining story, it is also an alarming one. It shows just how blinded and dangerous those in the Religious Right can be as they push their agenda forward. The Beauty Queen is more pertinent today than when it was first published in the 1970s."
    — Larry Dane Brimner, author of Being Different: Lambda Youths Speak Out
    The Beauty Queen
    PATRICIA NELL WARREN
    Wildcat Press Beverly Hills
    ©
    This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, institutions, places and incidents either are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.
    Sale of this book without its cover is not authorized. If you purchased this book without its cover, be aware that it was reported to the publisher as "damaged or destroyed."
    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording transmittal or posting on the Internet, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing. Inquiries should be addressed to: Wildcat Press, 8306 Wilshire Blvd.,
    Box 8306, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.
    Copyright © 1978 by Patricia Nell Warren
    Cover design:
    Barbara Brown, Tyler St. Mark and Patricia Nell Warren
    Cover art:
    Jay Fraley
    Book design:
    Barbara Brown Desktop Publishing and Patricia Nell Warren Typesetting:
    Barbara Brown Desktop Publishing, La Crescenta, CA Printed by Banta Book Group, La Costa, CA First Wildcat printing: June 1996 10 987654321
    PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
    Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: PZ4.W292Be [PS3573.A776] 813'.5'4 78-9172 ISBN: 0-9641099-8-0
    Dedicated to my brother and to Doric Wilson
    P.N.W.
    OTHER NOVELS BY PATRICIA NELL WARREN
    HARLAN'S RACE (Wildcat Press, 1994)
    ONE IS THE SUN (Ballantine, 1991)
    THE FANCY DANCER