Regina Rheostat- You'll Be Missed

Over the weekend a good friend sent word to the Mistress that the Philadelphia drag performer Regina Rheostat, who hadn't been seen in some time, had passed away. While I had only seen the fabulous Regina perform only once, she was very memorable. She too was from Harrisburg originally. When the Mistress first came out, she saw her perform in a show at the local dance club, and was in a show for one of the local charities at the time. She was probably one of the first really big drag queens to make drag mainstream in Pennsylvania,leading the way for the current queens. I remember my ex-coworker and friend, Andromeda Strain telling of stories of her as they were friends, and ran in the same circles. She was quite popular on the drag circuit in the 70's and early 80's entertaining at cabarets and dance clubs. Regina also was a active person with gay rights and raising much needed funds for AIDS research and for the local gay youth charities. She was promoting safe sex before was anyone knew what was coming. She could be seen passing out condoms at the boys when leaving the clubs. And every year Regina could be seen in the Invasion of the Pines at Fire Island. After the AIDS outbreak in the early eighties, and losing many friends to the disease, close friends say the sorrow of losing so many took a toll on Regina whose was having health issues herself with cancer, became reclusive and stopped performing. Regina's last public appearance was for a Halloween Ball in Philadelphia around 1990, when she did one last performance for a fundraiser for cancer research which she performed while in not the best condition herself. She over came her illness, but still stayed out of the public eye. Regina Rheostat passed away over the weekend at the age of 75 and is now on her way to the big stage in the sky.