Legendary film director John Waters was one of the first to break down cinema barriers by including drag queens in his films regularly. When he did so, he usually had one performer in mind particularly, and that was Divine. She was a star of an era when drag performers were far less accepted by the general public than they are now, but she excelled within that time. It's doubtful that 'Hairspray' would have gone on to be remade and re-imagined as many times as it has if Divine hadn't given such an iconic performance in the original.
Divine is sadly no longer with us, having passed away young of a heart attack in 1988, but TIME Magazine can offer us a perspective on how significant she was to drag - they officially named her as the Drag Queen of the 20th Century. Meeting Waters was a happy coincidence that aided both of their careers; they lived on the same street, and were kicked out of NYU at the same time, giving them nothing to do but try to create movies and make it on their own. They did.