"I loved it.... It's a page-turner and I couldn't put it down. And there were tears, my tears, at the end. Patricia Nell Warren has written what no one but she has been able to write, an exciting, fast-paced, realistic gay novel about gay people caught up in the web of their times.... I am an unashamed elitist and I dislike most gay fiction because it too often relies on sentiment and lots of sex...but this book appeals to a sentiment that is right and true, without which my elitism isn't worth the parchment it's written on; and that sentiment, that ideal, is gay freedom.... This one is her best." —Byrne Fone in The Advocate

"Jeannie Laird Colter is an ex-beauty queen, actress and politician making her... comeback in a campaign for governor of New York.... She regards homosexuals as perverts and infidels, vows to hound them until they see the light... Jeannie's crusade disrupts the gay community, provokes violence and death, and in the end exposes her own father's long-standing homosexual liaison."

Publisher's Weekly "In her most audacious and compelling novel yet, the author of The Front Runner... writes a story of power and sex in the public and private lives of a group of extraordinary people." —William Morrow & Co.

"A venomous portrait of irrational prejudice." —Booklist

"Warren tackles the impact of anti-gay political rhetoric. [She] creates a trio of diverse gay characters standing in opposition to the ex-beauty queen turned state senator, including two police officers who are her first major lesbian character and her first major gay exotic character. Told from four different points of view, The Beauty Queen also addresses issues of gay bashing...and the psychological strains of closeted ness." —Gay and Lesbian Literary Heritage

"Take that, Anita Bryant!.... Appeals to the committed and the curious." —Kirkus Review

"This novel concerns a woman politician who campaigns against gay rights in New York City. The impact of her campaign on the life of the city's gays, as represented by several gay policemen and -women and their lovers, is revealed sympathetically." —Library Journal

"In my latest reading, I found The Beauty Queen more urgently relevant than ever. On every front, from every quarter of the country, the religious right is attacking us, using the same tactics described in TBQ. The war is here." —Ronald L. Donaghe, author of Common Sons

"The Beauty Queen is not only an entertaining story, it is also an alarming one. It shows just how blinded and dangerous those in the Religious Right can be as they push their agenda forward. The Beauty Queen is more pertinent today than when it was first published in the 1970s." —Larry Dane Brimner, author of Being Different: Lambda Youths Speak Out

Written at the height of Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" campaign, this novel sometimes seems more fact than fiction. —Gay Lesbian Issues

"Take a closeted gay man, his republican beauty queen daughter, and have him finance her bid for state office in New York, and you have a brilliant novel! Patricia Nell Warren hooked me with The Front Runner series of books.... Set in the 70s, the book...plugs the readers in deeper to the state of minds of its principal characters. It is touching, humorous, and passionate. It delves into the life of a gay man, his deep love for his daughter, and how two lives that should be so close are often so distant." —Amazon.com reviewers

"Ok, I know I'll catch a lot of flack for this, but I liked it better than The Front Runner. I found the characters in this book to be less stereotypical and saccharin, and much more believable. The side stories to me were just as intriguing as the main plot, especially the very tender and well-written S&M romance between two characters, one of whom is a closeted cop. An unusual theme, and a surprisingly insightful and sympathetic one. This is one of the few books that I have every had to lay down for a moment to cry before I could finish reading it." —Steve Shumate, Greenville, SC

"I became furious while reading this book because I wanted to smash Jeanie Colter's head in for her ignorance. But towards the end of the book, as her life began to fall apart, I began to soften just a bit. Finding out her father was gay was the last straw for her. It was then she realized that no matter how much she abhorred homosexuality, she loved her father.... Patricia Nell Warren writes with passion, depth of emotion, and even whimsy; but her story comes shining through and leaves the reader clamoring for more."

"This book takes religion, gay rights, and politics and rolls them together to give you all sides of the story. I saw how both sides saw the Bible and its words in a different light. This book does not pretend to have all the answers to all the political or religious questions. But it can open the eyes of ALL RACES AND BOTH SEXES and let them see this topic in a whole new way. Incredible writing!" —SLICK50@gte.net from Dallas, TX