| abstract | - Cookie Buffet is the drag queen alter-ego of Washington, D.C. based gay rights activist Christopher Dyer. Dyer was born in Ann Arbor, MI in 1970 and moved to D.C. in 1975. He has since become a fixture of the gay community there. Dyer's primary work has been with GLBT youth and he established Youth Pride Day, an annual event since 1997. It is there, as well as at a variety of discothèques and gay pride events, that Dyer does nontraditional drag performances as Cookie. A typical performance by Cookie Buffet is NOT a typical drag performance. Dyer usually does very little to effectively present a feminine image, generally wearing shapeless dresses coupled with a beehive wig and nontraditional make-up reminiscent of the character Mimi from The Drew Carey Show. Though he did not coin the phrase, his performances are often called "Trailer Park Drag", and for several years he performed a series of fund-raising events as part of a "Trailer Park Revue." He is a self-admitted poor lip-syncher with absolutely no dance skill; often discussions about Cookie are trailed by "...yes, but he does such good things for the community." Buffet/Dyer is known almost exclusively in Washington, D.C. but his popularity there is extreme and widespread. He has been elected to public office on more than one occasion, most recently in March 2005 as ANC Commissioner for the Logan Circle Neighborhood.
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