The bizarre saga of US congressman and admitted liar George Santos has taken another weird twist with allegations that the ultra-conservative Republican competed as a drag queen in Brazilian beauty pageants

The embattled freshman House representative has already faced calls from fellow New York Republicans to step down over gross fabrications about his career and history.

The devil works hard but Rio drag queens worked harder finding this video of George Santos in drag pic.twitter.com/dDHMUxW7S5

— Wesley Bonner (@wesleybonner) January 20, 2023

Santos adamantly denies slipping into heels and a feathery red cocktail dress 15 years ago, but after claiming he is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and inventing an entire CV replete with claims to degrees he doesn’t have and jobs he never held, his credibility is less than minimal.

Now a 58-year-old Brazilian performer, who goes by the drag name Eula Rochard, has said she befriended the now-congressman when he was cross-dressing in 2005 at the first gay pride parade in Niteroi, a Rio de Janeiro suburb.

Three years later, she says, Santos competed in a drag beauty pageant in Rio, Rochard said, backing her claim with a photo. Meanwhile,  internet sleuths have dug up what they say is video footage.

Another person from Niteroi who knew the 34-year-old congressman but asked not to be named said he took part in drag queen beauty pageants and aspired to be Miss Gay Rio de Janeiro.

The congressman said on Twitter on Thursday that claims “that I am a drag Queen or ‘performed’ as a drag Queen” are “categorically false”, adding: “I will not be distracted nor fazed by this.”

Santos is the first openly gay Republican to win a House seat in Congress as a non-incumbent, but has positioned himself as a staunch conservative on many social issues.

‘Don’t say gay’

He has backed Florida’s controversial “Parental Rights in Education” law, which prohibits classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity, leading critics to call it the “don’t say gay” law.

Republicans are increasingly denouncing drag shows and performers, claiming they are harmful to children.

Santos, responding in October to criticism of his support for the Florida law, told USA Today: “I am openly gay, have never had an issue with my sexual identity in the past decade, and I can tell you and assure you, I will always be an advocate for LGBTQ folks.”

Rochard said the congressman was a “poor” drag queen in 2005, with a simple black dress, but in 2008 “he came back to Niteroi with a lot of money”, and a flamboyant pink dress to show for it.

Santos competed in a drag beauty pageant that year using the drag name Kitara Ravache but lost, Rochard said.

“He’s changed a lot, but he was always a liar. He was always such a dreamer,” Rochard said.

-with AAP