From Clinton masks to Trump wigs, election-year gags dominated the annual High Heel Race in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, when hundreds of drag queens paraded through the streets of the nation's capital.
Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community showed off elaborate costumes in a two-hour parade and a foot race that had a distinctly political theme, with references to presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
"Darlene DePlorable", wearing a shirt bearing the U.S. flag, borrowed Trump's campaign catchphrase and Clinton's remark, which the candidate later regretted, that half of her Republican rival's supporters belonged in a "basket of deplorables."
"I'm part of a basket of deplorables and we're all voting for Donald Trump because we want to make America great again," she told Reuters Television.
Another drag queen wore a smiling Clinton mask topped with a crown, as she shook hands with onlookers in the Dupont Circle neighborhood in northwest Washington.
"The high-heel drag race is obviously an LGBT event, but there's so many straight allies that come out and support the LGBT community in the audience," said "Helen Heels", who wore a white dress inside an oversized Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket.
"Helen North" dressed up as Star Trek's Janice Rand, one of Captain Kirk's love interests in the 1960s science fiction television series, and poked fun at Trump's proposed wall between the United States and Mexico to block undocumented immigrants.
"We're going to build a deflector shield around the earth and make the Klingons pay for it," she said.
