and operate the pageant and its network of preliminaries for the next 30 years. Norman Jones would form Norma Kristie, Inc. Norma Kristie, state representative of Arkansas, was crowned as the winner of the 1973 Miss Gay America Pageant, and in 1975 Norman 'Norma Kristie' Jones took ownership of the pageant from Jerry Peek, who founded the Miss Gay America Pageant. Jerry Peek opened this bar in 1971, and it was an instant sensation, not only with gay patrons, but also with the straight crowd.
Mirroring the format of the Miss America contest, the first national gay pageant Miss Gay America (MGA) was held in 1972 at the Watch Your Hat & Coat Saloon in Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville's first gay dance and show bar. Drag pageants evolved independently, in the decade subsequent to the first gay Mardi Gras coronations. Drag pageants were held in individual gay bars, and discothèques during the post Stonewall era. National drag pageants became enmeshed within the gay community during the 1960s with a national circuit of pageants organized by Flawless Sabrina and have become increasingly prevalent since.
