COMPTONS

When we talk gay Pride and gay history, it sometimes amazes me how it's not mentioned very much about the Compton Cafeteria Riots that happened several years before and most likely led the way for the Stonewall Riots,  and again led by trans women and drag queens. The queens had finally had enough! Almost 58 years ago this coming August, transgender and drag queens and gender- nonconforming customers at Gene Compton's Cafeteria stood up to years of abusive, discriminatory treatment by the San Franisco police. The all-night restaurant in the city's impoverished Tenderloin neighborhood was an unwilling haven for queer residents, and after its management called police to remove a noisy table of diners, patrons frustrated with the constant profiling and harassment, started throwing plates, glasses, trays, silverware and fist at the officers. While police waited for back up, customers tore the cafeteria apart, and the riot spread onto the nearby streets of Turk and Taylor, damaging police cars, smashing windows and burning a newspaper stand to the ground.

Three years before the Stonewall Riots in New York City, which most Americans consider the watershed moment for gay rights, transgender citizens of San Fran took to the streets to demand better treatment and to hold their harassers accountable. Although the conflict at Compton's was mostly ignored by the media, including our own publications run by the gay community, 1966 would prove a major turning point in the battle for transgender civil rights, a year when cultural shifts aligned to begin improving the Trans community's access to healthcare and its relationship with law enforcement. I know some people don't get the destruction of property and such. But when a part of tribe in my opinion is ignored, treated like dirt, can't have rights, and be treated just like everybody else, there comes a point it's time to burn the village to get people to see how far they have pushed us. There comes a breaking point when enough is enough.

Donna Personna was one that was not going to take it anymore, having been at Comptons, and faced discriminations from clubs and bars... and proud to say she is still with us at 78. Donna Personna does not want to be tolerated.  I read in a book, where she said, she is to be loved, adored and respected, and has no patience for anyone's tolerance. She says Fuck that shit...Just gives us our rights. I couldn't agree more.  And her Pride mantra always has been, "It' ain't no party. It's time to act up." We have to remember what happened more then 50 years ago to the transgender, the ones that taught her how to live and fight back if need be. Donna is a huge transgender rights activist these days and a fine artist who focuses in on photography, painting and mixed media. She also co-wrote a play about the Compton Cafeteria Riot and added much content into a documentary about the riot. Since then, she raised San Francisco's first transgender flag at City Hall with Mayor London Breed and in 2019 was the Grand Marshall of the Pride Parade. 

I can't help but when at a Pride think of all the ones involved in all the riots and the activist before us. I still get chills when in New York for Pride and have drinks at the Stonewall. I feel it's only right to take a moment of peace to feel the place and remember what went on in these places. Which is why it's important we keep being seen at these Pride Parades and festivals. We stay in our homes; people will think we don't care about our rights, or we are not good enough for them. Sure, the festivities, frivolity and comradery and the drinks can be fun, but let's also remember and give an ode to the real reason we are there...to celebrate where we came from, and to keep a good, spirited fight going. 

Happy Gay Pride🏳‍🌈

THE ELDERS

 I was very happy to see the delightful comments on last week's post about 91-year-old drag queen, Darcelle XV. I think we start to take for granted all the early drag queens who set the tone, but first and foremost, were never preoccupied with being the most beautiful, fishy, and a paint by number queen. Those formulas went right out the window. To still be doing drag, Darcelle at 91, still doing three shows a night for five days a week is fricking amazing. How many queens these days can say they had a career that long? It brings to mind other queens in the ring that we sadly hear very little about.

Dolly Levi dances to the beat of her own drum and never misses a beat. I mean that quite literally. At 64 Dolly is a long-time queen with the legendary Dreamgirls Revue in WEHO and Hamburger Mary's where she can be seen playing the tambourine, high kicking, cartwheels and still do splits. Dolly comes from a classical theater background, and her drag is inspired by old MGM films and the cancan dancers of Toulouse-Lautrec. She belongs to the House of St. James, the largest drag family in Orange County. "Drag queen" itself is an identity she eventually came to accept over her previous preference of female impersonator. Much like Darcelle she feels labels need to be thrown out, and she is an eminent professional and can give you the nitty-gritty of contract law and a thorough historical materialism and timeline of the ever growing drag industry at the drop of a dime. She has a quote I love. "Stop.Look.Listen.Live. Respect it. Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see."

The Goddess Bunny's cult icon status in Hollywood's underground was compounded by her mystifying personal history. The Goddess was a descendent of the Royal Italian bloodline and was one of several friends who was present when Divine's body was discovered after her untimely death. The Goddess was stricken with polio as a child and subjected to a number of botched corrective procedures, and various sexual abuse took place as well. She received substandard medical care that severely affected her posture and growth. It was in her mid-teens that she said she first identified as transgender, coming out to her parents and experiencing rejection. But that didn't stop her. By the late 70's she had found her calling performing drag in underground Hollywood clubs. Her live performances were a mix of live singing, lip-synch and tap dance to a truly one-of-a-kind act. She gained further notoriety for her unabashed sexiness that remained uncompromised by her unique physicality.  While she always remained a cult queen, she did have a few breakthroughs that included Hollywood Vice, Scumbag and starred in music videos for Dr. Dre and Marilyn Manson. And she never wavered from lending a hand to LGBT charities especially for the disabled. She sadly passed away in January of 2021 of COVID.

With a force of subtle persuasion and magnetic manifestation at 75 years old, Donna Personna is more powerful than ever. She cities Jackie O and Marilyn Monroe as major inspirations, lithely embodying that tension between wife and mistress. Elegant, sultry, vulnerable, she gives it all. She was the one who jump started and starred in the project Beautiful By Night, a documentary about the Hot Box Girls, a group of elder drag queens who still are performing at Aunt Charlie's in San Francisco's seedy Tenderloin neighborhood. She's a legend in San Fran and will continue to transmit a history of queer resistance to the younger generations. Donna has also co-written and is portrayed in the forthcoming play Compton's Cafeteria. She recounts the feeling of liberation and belonging she found as a teenage boy in the eponymous uprising of transgender sex workers, gay hustlers and hippies depicted in the play and her role in the Compton Riots. She has also started work on the screenplay.

Olivia Hart is one of the senior drag queens at Aunt Charlie's, the last of an all-gay lounge in the tenderloin neighborhood of San Fran, along with Donna Personna. Olivia is another of the queens who feel drag queens don't need to be high polish and fishy.  Olivia has said in a film that "My thing is not being a female illusionist where I look dead-on woman. I'm a man in a dress, and not afraid to show that." Olivia has stared for the last 20 years at the lounge and now at 70 shows no signs of stopping. And when it comes to gay rights and gay bashing, she will slap the shit out of you and ask questions later. 

These are just four more queens who have heart and show that they have staying power and are here to prove a drag queen can still have life after 40. These are the queens of a dying breed. And below is a fascinating, if not gritty documentary by James Hosking that showcases just that. What does it mean to grow older when you're a drag queen?