this could be you

heal your nervous system with this one weird trick

Livingston: "[…] really about who was prettiest. Um, I preferred categories that had athletic dance, or original costumes, or somebody going for an overall look. And that was more in keeping with the film’s overall themes. And then there were aspects of the balls there wasn’t room for. There were a couple categories for actual women participants, including a category for butch girls, who would either pass as men or were just handsome. But ultimately I left out - we left out the category for lesbians and women because it was just too hard to explain. I mean, you’re trying to say to your audience, “all these women are actually men,” and then you’re saying, “but these people are women.” I just thought, even for a gay audience, it might be confusing. And there were some other categories that, you know, just didn’t make it in the film ‘cause we had so much footage. […]"

(from the Criterion Collection's 2005 Commentary track for Paris is Burning).

So yeah, she really did cut out drag kings from the documentary because she thought it would be "too confusing." And not even just to a cishet audience but a gay audience, would be too confused by the idea of butches and male impersonation. Damn.