Atlantic City got a little bit gayer this weekend when the Miss'd America Pageant hit the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa.

On Saturday night, finalists sashayed, strut and shimmied in hopes of succeeding reigning queen Mimi Imfurst. In the end host Carson Kressley planted a crown and sash on Bangkok-born queen Pattaya Hart, who also earned a $5,000 cash prize.

Pattaya, a runner up last year, beat out Adrianna Trenta, Tina Burner, Jenna Tall, Sapphira Cristal, Morgan Morgan Morgan, and Savannah Savanier. It was her talent—a lip sync to Chicago's "All that Jazz" (with full Fosse choreography intact)—that really had the room on its feet.

“In Thailand... we have "ladyboy, like transgender," and "sissyboy," [who] dress up to look funny like a clown, they’re part of our culture," she told social anthropologist Laurie Green.

"We don’t have anything like drag, [where] you dress up to look like a real woman and act like one in performance," adds Pattaya, who took her name from a city in Thailand renowned for its gay scene and flamboyant kathoey cabaret shows.

Mimi Imfurst opened the night with a raucous live performance, mashing up "I'm Proud to be an American" and "American Idiot."

Organizers paid tribute to other past winners by inviting them on stage to introduce this year's contestants.

Miss'd America dates back to 1991, when the Miss America Pageant was still held in Atlantic City. Once the big event was over, gay makeup artists, costumers and hair stylists would stage a parody pageant of their own in the old Studio 6 club.

“The very first year it was a modest event,” Rich Helfant, a Miss'd America producer and president of the Greater Atlantic City GLBT Alliance, told the Press of Atlantic City. But within a few years, he recalls, "It just exploded. It would sell out without advertising. It became a must-see event."

After Miss America decamped to Las Vegas in 2005, Miss’d America went on hiatus. In 2010, the pageant, a fundraiser for the South Jersey AIDS Alliance, returned with a vengeance. The Borgata is its newest home, and part of the resort's Out at Borgata initiative.

“The Miss’D America pageant has always been a platform for people to express who they are, and that’s never been more important than it is now,” Helfant told Philadelphia Gay News. “With all the strides that have been made in gay rights, when you look at Charlottesville and last year Orlando, our work is so far from done. The pageant is more important than it’s ever been. Yes it’s fun, but there’s a bigger message of diversity, inclusion and equality.”

Check out more photos from Miss’d America 2018 below.