Mimi Marks is a transsexual entertainer. She performs at The Baton Show Lounge in Chicago, Ill..
Mimi was born Mark in Waterloo, Iowa, but grew up in Oelwein, Iowa. As a boy, she recalls feeling "uncomfortable in her body," and had the "most difficult time" in her physical education class because, she says, "I didn't fit in at all."
After undergoing some sex-reassignment surgeries (to date Mimi still hasn't had complete sexual reassignment), Mark became Mimi. According to Trantasia [1], a transsexual beauty pageant documentary, she has lived as a woman since she was 21 years old. Mimi started performing in Milwaukee at a club called "Dance, Dance, Dance" with some help from a performer from Australia by the name of Holly Brown. Mimi says that, for transwomen in Chicago, the test of whether they can pass as women is to appear in public at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs: “"If you could walk through Wrigley-ville, like, during a Cubs game and not get 'spooked,' and not have anybody call you out, you were like the 'girl-iest' girl, you made it. I called [a friend] and said, 'I am at a Cubs game on first base, eleventh row. I made it. I'm a girl!'" [2]
In 1986, Mimi won her first pageant title: Ms. Waterloo 1986. She has also won Miss International Queen, Pattaya, Thailand; The World's Most Beautiful Transsexual Contest, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; and Miss Continental, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
In 2008 Mimi appeared in Janet Jackson's musicvideo Rock With U.[1]
Mimi is reported to have been the first ever openly transsexual runway model, working for the Ford Modeling agency.
Mimi has kept Iowa close at heart, returning often to visit family and friends. For many years she was the star attraction at Waterloo, Iowa's Community AIDS Assistance Program (CAAP) Annual Benefit, a relatively large affair to raise funds for northeast Iowa's AIDS and HIV community. Most recently she appeared as the master of ceremonies for a talent show held by PFLAG in the town where her oldest brother resides in north central Iowa.