She wore a slinky black dress with silver sparkles, just like Cher. She had curly black hair, too. And canned music so she could sing along with Cher's greatest hits. But this was not your traditional impersonator. Because underneath it all, this lady was a man. And that created a ruckus when she arrived at the Democratic Party convention in Atlantic City last week to sing and dance at the meeting of the gay caucus. "We said listen, this is Atlantic City and it's a pretty irreverent place," says Steve Goldstein, founder of Garden State Equality, the state's leading gay-rights organization. "So let's have a little fun, and be a little campy."
Goldstein had no idea what was coming. Party leaders were not about to let the gay caucus fix this image of the Democrats in the mind of the public. Certainly not during an election season. So as "Cher" walked the hallways at Bally's Hotel and Casino before her performance on Friday evening, the party sent young workers to tear down the posters advertising her show. Then Diane Legreide, the party's executive director, marched straight at Goldstein with a full-volume dressing down. She doesn't recall her exact words and says her major concern was that Cher's performance might make too much noise.