Drag queens, kings to strut their stuff with Mummers

AS A KID growing up on 2nd Street in South Philly, Ian Morrison enjoyed the spectacle of the wild post-New Year's Day Parade celebrations that unfurled in his tight-knit neighborhood.

But what he looked forward to the most was the day after the parade.

"We'd steal everything the brigades threw out, the makeup and the costumes," laughed Morrison, 39, dressed from head to toe yesterday as his makeup-heavy drag-queen alter ego, Brittany Lynn.

Morrison, City Councilmen Jim Kenney and Mark Squilla, and several members of the LGBT "Miss Fancy" Brigade gathered at the Mummers Museum, at 2nd Street and Washington Avenue, to announce that the troupe of female impersonators would march in the parade for the second year in a row.

The group will perform on Broad Street and in front of the judging stand, parade director Leo Dignam said. They'll also do short performances inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in between the elaborately staged Fancy Brigade acts.

The 11 drag queens will be joined for the first time by six drag kings, Morrison said.

Kenney noted that female impersonators were a mainstay during New Year's Day parades until the 1970s, when the category was eliminated as women began to take part in the parade.

City officials decided to bring the category back last year.

"The more diverse the parade is, the stronger it gets," Kenney said. "The stronger the parade is, the longer it lasts."

Morrison said the drag queens were a bit wary of how they'd be received when they entered the parade route last year at Broad and Washington.

"We were a little nervous, but we couldn't have had a better reception," he said. "We had babies thrown at us and cops were photobombing us! It was incredible."