A picture from DC’s parade this week and a memory of the first time I saw a drag queen. I worked for my father’s company the summer after I graduated high school while I tried to decide what to do with my life. My father had a convention in L.A. and took me along just to be nice under the pretense that I would demonstrate AutoCAD at our booth. Our travelling companion was a British woman who worked in another branch of the company. On the elevator ride up to our hotel room my father and I were following elevator etiquette and minding our own business. Out of the silence popped up the British accent with “Your teeth are just beautiful.” My father and I took our eyes off the floor and looked up about a foot and half over our heads to a man in the most sparkly attire I’ve ever seen thanking our companion for complimenting his expensive dental work.