Oct 21, 2005  |  By: BRIAN MOYLAN  | COMMENTS     

D.C. WILL ENGAGE in one of its uniquely homegrown Halloween events next week: the annual High Heel Race, more commonly referred to as the Drag Race.

It started as a small event in 1986 at the gay bar JR.’s, where 25 contestants donned dresses and high heels and raced up and down 17th St., NW.

After gaining popularity for 19 years, the event now attracts thousands to 17th between P and R streets, to watch scores of drag queens (some in gowns and getups so elaborate that they can hardly walk, let alone run) duke it out for the grand prize — a bar tab at JR.’s, which still sponsors the event. This year’s race will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

There will be street closures, television news crews, politicians, squad cars, and cheering fans lining the streets before the race and mingling with drag queens afterwards.

ANOTHER POPULAR D.C. Halloween-season event happens this weekend, but with decidedly less fanfare. The annual Miss Adams Morgan Pageant will be held on Saturday, Oct. 22, and, as usual, organizers are keeping quiet about details of the private party.

Like the High Heel Race, the pageant started on 17th Street — at Annie’s as an amateur drag contest among friends. It was such a hit that organizers held the event at a private residence the following year.

When the party grew too large to be staged at a private home, tickets were sold and it moved to a number of different venues.

Each year, about 10 amateur drag queens don elaborate costumes and getups and sashay down the runway and dance in choreographed production numbers in a mock beauty pageant.

Held on a Saturday in October, the event draws more than 2,000 paying guests. This year’s event will be held in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton; tickets are $50.

Some of the most breathtaking creations won’t be found on stage, but on the attendees, almost all of whom show up in some form of costume, drag or otherwise.

IF YOU’VE NEVER heard of the Miss Adams Morgan Pageant, you’re not alone. Unlike the High Heel Race, the pageant is a private event that is closed to working media. With the exception of photos published in the Blade in 2002, media outlets have largely avoided covering the event, which is just the way the Dupont Social Club — the group that stages the annual show — wants to keep it.

“Since its inception, the Miss Adams Morgan Pageant has been conducted as a private event, closed to the working media,” the Social Club board of directors said in a statement e-mailed to the Blade this week.

“We certainly appreciate your interest in covering this event, however its private nature, supported wholly by those involved in the leadership and Board that runs it, specifically precludes working reporters from covering the pageant.”

The Blade received complaints from several organizers after publishing the photos three years ago. Chris Crain, the Blade’s executive editor, responded to the complaints in a 2002 editorial.

“Why all the fuss about making no fuss? Because, it seems, several of the contestants are in the closet — not necessarily about being gay, but about dressing in drag once a year and participating in the pageant,” he wrote, explaining the no media policy.

The Social Club, which has about 50 members comprised of past and present contestants, still operates the show, and its members are the only ones authorized to sell the tickets. So, if you don’t know someone or know someone who knows someone, you’re not going to get in. As usual, the event is already sold out.