HARLOW

Children, if you're in the LGBTQ community, unless you lived under a rock, or very young, then you most likely know who Rachel Harlow is. This legendary drag queen and tran woman, originally from South Philly, first appeared in the 1969 documentary The Queen, which I highly recommend viewing, especially if you want to see a drag show and competition like no other, where many legends started and many taglines and manners were born... and one where she got read for filth by co-legend queen Crystal LaBeija, when Rachel Harlow won the show and many thought it was because of her being white...of course Crystal left the system and started her own shows, which was the start of ballroom. But unlike the short life Crystal had, Rachel Harlow...better known as just Harlow the world over went on to have a glorious life.

After a brief stint in Hollywood where she made one movie with Jack Nicholson, she returned to her hometown, opened Philly's first and greatest Disco of the city Harlow's and was feted by the local press and treated like one of the city's most exciting citizens. She appeared on talk shows and did modeling. Her gender confirmation surgery made huge headlines. Then she made even bigger headlines again when she entered a very public relationship with Princess Grace of Monaco's brother Jack Kelly,, who was a local golden boy and a city councilman. His political opponents, his mother and Princess Grace all threatened to make a big stink about the relationship and after time they split up. They were quite the couple from recounts

There's much more to her story. After the relationship feel apart with Jack Kelly, Harlow fell mostly out of the public eye after that or rather walked away from it. Eventually Harlow's closed, and she took a job at the perfume counters of the legendary John Wanamaker's. It wasn't till 1989, a Philadelphia Inquirer article popped up, of an update she had married chef/baker Gerard Billebault in 1980 and took his name, opening a restaurant, again called Harlow's, with him in 1988. However, the restaurant closed in 1993, and their marriage ended alongside it. 

Who knows all the intricacies of what she experienced in the gay world, in the gay bars, in the straight bars, in the drag contest green rooms and hotels, in the banquettes at Harlow's or at the parfumerie...but finally... the Philadelphia Inquirer has said a memoir might be finally coming and is only in the proposal stage. It will be the first time she's spoken about her life in over thirty years. The memoir would promise the ups and downs of living a public life as a trans woman over fifty years ago, and will no doubt spills some beans and backstory of all the exciting things she experienced. She seems ready to tell her story finally at almost 80. I saw where she recently commented she quite rightly feels there's power in reminding people that a city like Philadelphia embraces and continues to embrace trans women and the trans community for over a half century and they elevated her as one of its leading citizens, in a time when it wasn't acceptable. Sometimes a trailblazer is a trailblazer simply because she was brave enough to demand a life on her own terms. It's bound to be an excellent page turner.