Miss Gay Bloomington gets face-lift

Despite a new venue, a new scoring system, an increased purse and the first out-of-state winner in the event's history, one thing remained constant during the 2005 Miss Gay Bloomington pageant Wednesday night at Axis Night Club: the crowning of a citywide champion.\nBrittany Taylor, a self-identified transsexual woman who lives in Orlando, Fla., earned the title after dazzling a six-judge panel. In doing so, she pocketed more than $1,000 in awards and booty, including a rhinestone-studded crown, a $600 cash prize and a $50 Wigs Unlimited gift certificate. \nTaylor won two of the four categories: personal interview and on-stage interview. Her talent performance consisted of a theatrical show based on the musical score "Rita's Confession."\n"I agree with the judges on everything. I wasn't first in all the categories but my character traits overpowered the negatives," Taylor said while surrounded by audience well-wishers and hug-happy former Miss Gay Bloomington winners. \nMiss Gay Bloomington producer Jason Ervin, owner and operator of Storm Productions, a Bloomington-based company, said he moved the contest to Axis Night Club this year based on the performers' feedback and failure to reach an agreement with Bullwinkle's Nightclub. Bullwinkle's, a dance club that caters to the greater Bloomington queer culture, had hosted the pageant the previous 22 years.\nHe said his long-term goals include marketing the contest and confirming the validity of the title to a state and national audience.\n"Miss Gay Bloomington is one of the oldest pageants in the state of Indiana," Ervin said. "The list of former winners is impressive -- women who have won other state and national pageants. It was great to see someone outside the state win."\n"This is a perfect opportunity to take the pageant to a different level of national promotion and contestant recruitment," he added. "I don't want Miss Bloomington to be secluded from the rest of the community because she is very much a representative of our community." \nThis year's theme was dubbed "Phantom of the Opera," and participants were encouraged to display costumes representing a "vintage masquerade." Seven Miss Gay Bloomington contestants competed in four categories with varying point totals: a personal interview with the judges, evening gown, on-stage question and talent. The panel of judges rated each contestant's performance in each category according to a predetermined scale, and each contestant's lowest and highest awards were dropped from her overall total in each category.\nUnlike previous Miss Gay Bloomington pageants, in which judges merely tabulated the total points accumulated by each contestant to determine a winner, this year's event marked the debut of a "comparative ranking" system similar to other beauty and talent pageants, such as Miss America. The judges were instructed to make notes during each performance but to hold off awarding any points until all the competitors had completed any given category. \nIndianapolis resident Tim Mullet, one of the contest's judges and a representative from the pageant's sponsor Smirnoff Vodka, said he looked for the "total package" from each contestant: talent, beauty and pose. He said he has attended his fair share of drag shows but had never judged a drag show pageant.\n"A lot of contestants put a lot of effort on talent and beauty, although I appreciate pose," Mullet said. "When you're a Miss Gay Bloomington title holder, there are much more important things than talent and beauty."\nTaylor said she is looking forward to representing the Bloomington community locally, nationally and throughout her travels across the country. She said she has performed her entire life, although her drag show is only four years old.\n"I have made a promise to fulfill the duties of Miss Gay Bloomington, and I do not think that will be an issue because I plan on traveling back to town at least three or four times during the next year," Taylor said. "This title is another opportunity to get my name out there, to get the name of Florida out there and to get the word out that they do it right in Indiana"