Crystal LaBeija

{{Short description|American drag queen, trans woman, founder of the House of LaBeija}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Crystal LaBeija

| image = Crystal_LaBeija.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Crystal LaBeija in the film The Queen (1968)

| birth_date = 1930s

| death_date = 1982

| nationality = American

| known_for = Co-founder of ball culture

| other_names = Crystal LaAsia

| occupation = Drag performer

}}

Crystal LaBeija (born 1930s, died 1990s) was an American drag queen and trans woman who co-founded the House of LaBeija in 1968.{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalhouseoflabeija.com/history |title=History Royal house of Labeija |author=|date=2022|website=House of LaBeija|access-date=October 19, 2023}} The House is often credited as starting the house system in ball culture. She became a mother figure for homeless LGBTQ youth.{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-lgbtq-icon-behind-frank-oceans-endless/ |title=The Iconic Drag Queen Behind Frank Ocean's Endless |last=Street |first=Mikelle |date=August 19, 2016 |work=Vice }}

Career

In the early 1960s, before the emergence of regular balls, New York's drag culture was divided along racial lines—the Pattie Girls (white), the La Chanels (Black), and the Delightful Ladies (Latina).{{Cite web |title=Pioneers |url=https://www.swervmagazine.com/entertainment-2/pioneers/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Vivian Lopez Ponce |url=https://nyctransoralhistory.org/interview/vivian-lopez-ponce/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=NYC Trans Oral History Project}} Via the latter group, it became common parlance of the moment to use the phrase la bella—Spanish for "the beautiful"—to enhance one's image or merely describe another person.{{Cite web |title=Marlow Monique Dickson |url=https://theoutwordsarchive.org/interview/marlow-monique-dickson/ |access-date=2024-05-04 |website=The Outwords Archive |language=en-US}} Crystal, originally working and competing on the Manhattan drag circuit under the name of Crystal LaAsia, was widely known for her beauty and later adopted the phrase as her permanent moniker, with a rearticulated spelling ("Beija") of the -ll- sound in bella [ˈbe.ʝa].{{Cite book |last=Cruz |first=Samuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSqpwKjk-BEC&dq=%22la+beija%22+%22la+bella%22&pg=PA66 |title=Christianity and Culture in the City: A Postcolonial Approach |date=2013 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-0-7391-7675-7 |language=en}}{{cite encyclopedia |article=bella |date=2024-05-03 |encyclopedia=Wiktionary, the free dictionary |url=https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=bella&oldid=79093266 |access-date=2024-05-04 |language=en}} 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.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/pride/8114073/ballroom-icon-crystal-labeija-what-to-know |title=5 Things to Know About Ballroom Icon Crystal LaBeija |last=Street |first=Mikelle |magazine=Billboard |date=February 16, 2018 |access-date=2018-08-25}} 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.{{Cite web|last=Lawrence|first=Tim|title='Listen, and you will hear all the houses that walked there before': A history of drag balls, houses and the culture of voguing|url=http://www.ezratemko.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/A-history-of-drag-balls-houses-and-the-culture-of-voguing.pdf|website=ezratemko.com/}} In 1967, she was crowned Miss Manhattan.{{cite journal|last=Tourjee|first=Diana|date=Winter 2017|title=The Marlow La Fantastique Show|journal=Aperture|volume=229|issue=229 |pages=40–47|issn=0003-6420|jstor=44898156}}

LaBeija subsequently competed in the 1967 Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant held at 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.{{Cite book |title=Afro-fabulations : the queer drama of Black life |first=Tavia |last=Nyong'o |date=November 27, 2018 |publisher=NYU Press |author-link=Tavia Nyong'o |isbn=9781479856275 |oclc=1031956694 }}

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.{{cite web |url=http://www.timlawrence.info/articles2/2013/7/16/listen-and-you-will-hear-all-the-houses-that-walked-there-before-a-history-of-drag-balls-houses-and-the-culture-of-voguing |title={{'}}Listen, and You Will Hear all the Houses that Walked There Before': A History of Drag Balls, Houses and the Culture of Voguing. London: Soul Jazz, 2011 |date=July 16, 2013 |publisher=timlawrence.info }} 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.{{Cite web|date=2019-06-20|title=The Church of OVAH: Transcendence in the House Ballroom Scene · ArtsEverywhere|url=https://artseverywhere.ca/2019/06/20/the-church-of-ovah/|access-date=2020-10-12|website=ArtsEverywhere|language=en-US}}

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.{{cite news |last1=Wortham |first1=Jenna |title=Is 'RuPaul's Drag Race' the Most Radical Show on TV? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/24/magazine/is-rupauls-drag-race-the-most-radical-show-on-tv.html |access-date=19 April 2020 |work=The New York Times Magazine |date=24 January 2018}}

Death

In 2019, Rolling Stone reported that LaBeija died of liver failure in 1982.{{Cite magazine |last=Portwood |first=Jerry |date=2019-12-16 |title=Why 'The Queen' Documentary Is an Essential Queer Time Capsule |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/queen-doc-sabrina-frank-simon-kino-lorber-crystal-labeija-852591/ |access-date=2021-06-13 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}} However, in 1993, the New York Times reported that Labeija was still alive and had attended a revival of The Queen at the Film Forum in New York.{{Cite news |last=Grimes |first=William |date=1993-03-27 |title='The Queen' on the Runway Again |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/27/movies/the-queen-on-the-runway-again.html |access-date=2021-06-13 |issn=0362-4331}} 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."{{cite magazine |last=Portwood |first=Jerry |date=2019-12-16 |title=Why 'The Queen' Documentary Is an Essential Queer Time Capsule |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-features/queen-doc-sabrina-frank-simon-kino-lorber-crystal-labeija-852591/ |access-date=2020-05-11 |magazine=Rolling Stone}}

Legacy

LaBeija and The House of LaBeija have had a lasting influence on ball culture and popular culture.

The opening credits of the television series Transparent feature footage of LaBeija from the film The Queen.{{Cite web |last=Vider |first=Stephen |date=2014-10-23 |title=There's an Amazing Bit of History Hiding in Transparent's Opening Titles |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/10/transparents-opening-credits-are-a-lesson-in-the-history-of-gender.html |access-date=2022-07-05 |website=Slate Magazine |language=en}}

The novel The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara is a fictional account of New York Ball culture and features characters inspired by LaBeija and members of The House of LaBeija.{{Cite web |last=Jacques |first=Juliet |date=2018-05-24 |title=The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara review – disco, drag and tragedy |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/24/the-house-of-impossible-beauties-review |access-date=2022-07-06 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

The television series Pose features characters and events inspired by LaBeija and ball culture in New York City. The character Elektra Wintour, played by Dominique Jackson, delivers reads{{Cite web |last1=Romano |first1=Nick |last2=Baldwin |first2=Kristen |date=June 7, 2021 | title=Ranking Elektra's 20 best reads on 'Pose' |url=https://ew.com/tv/elektra-reads-pose-ranked/ |access-date=2022-07-05 |website=EW.com (Entertainment Weekly) |language=en |publisher=Meredith Corporation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210607165109/https://ew.com/tv/elektra-reads-pose-ranked/ |archive-date=June 7, 2021}} similar to the LaBeija's speech at the end of The Queen.

A Season 3 episode of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars featured drag queen Aja LaBeija imitating Crystal during the Snatch Game episode.

The current House of LaBeija appeared in the third season of the ballroom competition series Legendary.

Frank Ocean's visual album, Endless, contains a clip of LaBeija on the track "Ambience 001: "In A Certain Way."{{Cite web |last=Tanzer |first=Myles |date=August 19, 2016 |title=There's A Tiny Piece Of Queer History Hiding In Frank Ocean's Visual Album |url=https://www.thefader.com/2016/08/19/frank-ocean-endless-the-queen-quote |access-date=2022-07-05 |website=The FADER |language=en}}

The Crystal LaBeija Organizing Fellowship offers a 1-year fellowship, "open to all Black and Brown, trans, gender non-conforming, and non-binary individuals who belong to the ballroom community".{{Cite web |title=Crystal La'Beija Organizing Fellowship |url=https://www.crystallabeijaof.org/ |access-date=2022-07-05 |website=Crystal La'Beija Organizing Fellowship |language=en-US}} The fellowship empowers fellows "to address the issues impacting the lives of transgender women, transgender men, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people in the house ball community via community building, economic empowerment, advocacy, and activism through wellness and social justice lenses."