1999advocacy
Drag Queen Icon
1999
Drag queen icon — she lost her own look-alike contest and never toned herself down
Photo credit“I've always had these drag queens dress like me. And I even lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest.”
By the late 1980s and 1990s, Parton was already famous for her enormous gay and drag-queen following. She once secretly entered a Dolly Parton look-alike contest on Santa Monica Boulevard — and lost to drag performers dressed as her. She joked she did not even come close. In interviews she said she would have been a drag queen if she had been born male, and refused industry advice to tone down her image: "I'm just not willing to give up the girl. I wouldn't be Dolly Parton."
Did you know
In 2020 she partnered with drag star Nina West on a charity apparel collection benefiting LGBTQ+ youth and children's literacy.