THE BEAUTY QUEEN

Take that, Anita Bryant. Oh yes, the born-again beauty queen in this humorless plop of propa-gay-da is called Jeannie Colter and she lives in New York. but. just like Anita, she's battling against homosexual-rights legislation; she's even running for governor of New York with virulent, McCarthyistic ""anti-homosexualism"" as a key campaign issue. But is she happy? Of course not. Her husband won't sleep with her, her kids despise her, and her father. . . well, unbeknownst to Jeannie, her widower father is--what else?--a closet homosexual in love with an ex-racing car driver (who can look ""as savage and ruthless as the beautiful killer Englishman in The Day of the Jackal""). Eventually, her father's embarrassing passion will end Jeannie's crusade, but meanwhile her speeches are inspiring anti-homosexual harassment. So homosexuals are marching (""Mary Ellen looked out over the sea of gay humanity, and a lump lodged in her throat""), and a N.Y. Police Dept. lesbian cop considers assassinating Jeannie, especially when her partner--a homosexual cop--is murdered by Colter-inspired anti-homosexuals. And then there's the nice middle-aged Jewish cop, also homosexual. In fact, New York's whole police department here seems to be. . . . Ah well, when you're in love, the whole world's gayish--or so it goes in Patricia Nell Warren's juvenile, romanticized (some revolting S-M gets the dreamy treatment) appeals to the committed and the curious.