butch queen up in drag

One of the gender categories in ballroom's own system. A butch queen (a gay or bisexual cis man) who walks the ball serving a full female illusion — face, body, hips, the whole fantasy — but who lives as a man and hasn't medically transitioned. It's a performance lane, not an identity claim. Historically it doubled as a proving ground for femme queens in training: people questioning their gender could test the waters in drag without committing. Ballroom built its own six-part gender model (butch queen, femme queen, butch, woman, man/trade, and butch queen up in drag) decades before the mainstream argued about any of it.