ROSA PARKS OF GAY RIGHTS

The Widow Norton and the Imperial Court played a huge part in drag history.

By the 1950s, police had begun cracking down on gay-friendly establishments and enforcing anti-cross-dressing laws; in New York, for instance, men were legally obligated to wear no fewer than three pieces of male clothing in order to not be arrested for drag. Amid intensifying anti-gay hostility, in 1965, the Imperial Court System was founded as the first drag queen organization, and that kind of community building among drag queens would ultimately prove to be a valuable resource within the broader gay community that had begun making itself more publicly known. Even in the face of legal repression and social ostracism, drag queen communities began to organize more formally in the mid-1960s. In response to the police shutting down a string of gay bars, José Julio Sarria, and better known as  Absolute Empress I, the Widow Norton,  San Francisco's first openly gay political candidate and local performer, founded the Imperial Court System that united the drag queen and gay community at large for annual drag balls and other events. Chapters now exist in cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico and largely serve as philanthropic organizations that help support HIV and AIDS prevention and research.

Sarria was the only child of a Colombian mother; his father was a San Franciscan who had no role in his life. As a young man, Sarria served in World War II, becoming a staff sergeant. When he returned to the United States, he trained to become a teacher, but a morals charge closed that career path to him. Eventually he took a job as a waiter at the Black Cat Cafe in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. There he began singing while waiting tables and shortly thereafter started his long career as a drag performer. Soon his campy one-man versions of notable operas, peppered with local references and humorous commentary, changed the Black Cat from a bohemian venue into a world-famous gay bar and a place of community for gay men. As the political remarks in his shows increased and became more pointed, Sarria was revealed as a pioneer in gay political theatre and a full-blown political activist, outdoors as well as indoors. During a time of significant police harassment of the LGBT community, Sarria encouraged his followers to stand up for themselves and to reject second-class status. He was known for the slogan “United we stand, divided they arrest us one by one.” He encouraged his friends and admirers to fight back against police harassment—to demand a jury trial rather than seem to admit to guilt and pay a fine.

In the mid-1960s, at San Francisco’s first public drag ball, Sarria was named the Queen of the Ball, but, declaring himself “already a queen,” he preferred to claim the grander title “Empress” and the broader territory of San Francisco. He also appropriated the legend of the Emperor Joshua Abraham Norton, an eccentric 19th-century San Franciscan miner and rice baron who in 1858 had proclaimed himself the Emperor of the United States and Canada and Protector of Mexico. When he passed on 2013, it was one of the largest funerals in some time in San Fran.  His legacy was honored by the city of San Francisco with the renaming of a section of Castro Street  as José Sarria Court. The city also placed a plaque that notes Sarria’s contributions in the sidewalk in front of the Harvey Milk Memorial Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, located at 1 José Sarria Court

Because of Sarria's founding of the Imperial Court System, today it governs approximately 70 kingdoms in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Today, the International Court System is the largest LGBT organization in the country, second only to the Metropolitan Community Church. The biggest night for the court is the famous Night of A Thousand Gowns, where it is a must to donne huge hair and gowns, or come in black tie. The event is incredible. The Court is a social, fundraising organization which has raised millions of dollars for social service and health support organizations. In addition to their own fundraising, they often lend their support and talent to other organizations in their ventures by performing, volunteering or just adding beauty and style! The members are people who have chosen to make a commitment, get involved and make a difference in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. And the membership is broad and varied: lawyers, carpenters, therapists, ministers, stockbrokers, hairdressers, marketers, performers, accountants, teachers, florists, antique dealers, jewelers and more.

Our very own Regent Lady Finger and husband royale.

Maybe one year I'll go as the Empress Madeline Borghese I, theTemptress of peace, art and seduction ?

DRAG IS EMERGING

In the book Drag, Baker says cross-dressing remained a pervasive part of theater culture until the late 19th century, when it began to take a new form. Female impersonators developed their own vaudeville acts, wherein they created caricatures of women. Some of the first queen were the likes of Julian Eltinge, Barbette and Marcel Dunchamp, who started their own highly entertaining shows and became popular acts in the numerous vaudeville theatres across America from the turn of the 19th Century until the late 1930s. 

This moment in time birthed such mocking personas as the "wench" and the "primadonna." But in order to find the first iterations of the "drag queen" as we know her today, we have to pinpoint the moment drag culture became inextricably linked with the gay community, which some believe  didn't really happen until the 1930s. Before then, the scientific field of sexology was forming and began to talk about the 'third sex, The third sex was discussed as a feminine man or a masculine woman who desires members of the same sex. By the 1930s this scientific conversation had worked its way into the popular culture and linked drag with homosexuality. This connection marked the switch: drag culture no longer belonged to straight, white men. Can you believe that??? In this moment, we witness the emergence of the first true drag queens. It was then in the mid 30's that different kinds of drag queens occurred at the time. While other female impersonators existed, the drag queens were integral to the new, gay-friendly spaces that began to pop up. Queens like Jackie Jackson, Gilda, April Stevens,  Jose Sarria and the girls of the infamous Jewel Box Revue, were among the first to start all drag revues and shows in little hidden clubs and taking  drag in a new direction. 

The modern iteration of the drag queen developed in these underground clubs over the next handful of decades. Meanwhile, in the public eye, female impersonation was given a comedic edge; cross-dressing was portrayed in film and TV as a punchline, or an object of strangeness. One classic example is Some Like It Hot, which follows a farcical, almost Shakespearean story of two men posing as women. In Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Norman Bates is a deranged man who dresses as his mother before killing people. Who could forget the eerie shrieks of the score as the shower curtain pulls back to reveal the poorly styled wig on Norman Bates's head?

Now  venturing into the late 20th century, we can see how drag queens finally began to become a more visible part of arts and culture. Drag was a powerful movement in NYC during the 1980s and 1990s, due in large part to the explosively experimental East Village performance scene, and its products such as the Pyramid Club and the annual Wigstock drag festival. At this point, drag queens were amassing large followings. Some of the first drag icons emerged: Divine was a legend out of Baltimore who frequently worked with director John Waters. 

There was something striking about a 300-pound drag queen who gave no fucks — Divine's incredible presence even served as inspiration for Ursula the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid. According to the story, none of the character designs for Ursula worked, until an animator named drew a vampy overweight matron who everyone agreed looked a lot like Divine. And speaking of Wigstock, Lady Bunny is the founder and creator of the event.

 Lady Bunny once told the story of her first performance in NYC, which speaks to a drag queen's complete willingness to make a fool of herself. A drag queen challenges you to laugh with her, and laugh at her. That's what makes queens so alluring and captivating.  Lady Bunny and Wigstock were what got me inspired into drag... as they captured the fierce, unyielding spirit of someone who is so sure of who they are and what they're doing that nothing can drag them down. RuPaul, who also came from Atlanta with Lady Bunny, both swung open the doors of drag in New York in a big way.

 There are many more historic queens: Australia's Dame Edna, Pepper LaBeija ,often referred to as the Queen of Harlem Drag Balls), and Flawless Sabrina. And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't also say that Pepper La Beija and the ball culture didn't also bring about some new style of queens and performance style.

 Paris Is Burning, chronicled the aforementioned Harlem drag balls, where Pepper LeBeija reigned supreme. As we descend into this unfamiliar world, we witnessed the true artistry of a drag ball, which was like a sporting event for the LGBTQ+ community. It is also where the term reading, shade, and spilling the t came from. These balls marked a safe space for individuals to express themselves and find escape, I also firmly believe indirectly it also helped slur the "club kid" where the like of the legendary Leigh Bowery, Richie Rich and Amanda Lepore were bore.

DRAG HISTORY IS HERE

        The House of Galore from Amsterdam

Drag has always been near and dear to my heart. I can remember starting drag at 22 and only just retiring from the arena in 2004. I'll still do the occasional show, or show up full regalia to support the other girls at a show, or just show up as my cute little self to thrown in some doe for the cause. But I still have many , many friends and acquaintances who are queens. I can't imagine the gay community without them. They add such high camp, glamour, and comic relief to a otherwise cookie cutter "cute boys" night out at the club. Not to mention they are hard working for oodles of great causes. Many queens won't mind when asked to do a show for charity, and break in those new 6" heels. Those high heels are why I have muscular legs, I swear! And at the end of the day, if you raised any money for anything, or made someone laugh, it was all worth the hours of getting ready. And to mention it take balls to do drag, even once!!!!

 

Drag shouldn’t be confused with transvestism, which is very similar, in the sense that involves cross dressing and switching gender roles. Most transvestites do not cross dress to be seen, as drag queens are, but to feel like a woman. Transvestism can also be a sexual fetish, whereas drag rarely is. There were many nights a straight guy would hit on me, to only find out I was a guy and still wanted to have sex....huh, no thanks. There are, however, some men, and women, who like to sleep with drag queens.

Men dressing as women in performance has always been around. In Shakespearean and classical Chinese theatre men would play the parts of women as women would not be permitted to appear on stage. We can see early forms of traditional drag appearing towards the late 1800s and early 20th century.

Julian Eltinge began performing in Broadway shows from the age of 10, appearing as a girl, and by 1910 reached the height of his fame going on a national tour of America and even producing his own magazine. After the two world wars, under Joseph McCartney, national paranoia in America was rife. Anything deemed ‘subversive’  was also deemed a national risk. In the 1950s the US State Department decided that homosexuals were part of these ‘subversive’ groups. The FBI and police kept records of ‘known homosexuals’, and printed their photographs in local papers. Cities performed sweeps of bars and nightclubs to ‘rid’ neighbourhoods of gay people. The wearing of opposite gender clothes were banned, and gay men and women were often publically humiliated, harassed, fired from jobs, jailed or institutionalised in mental hospitals.

Jackie Jackson

Small pockets of activism grew throughout the 1950s and 60s, however the gay rights movement is often though to have begun in 1969 at the Stonewall Bar in New York. It was the only gay bar in New York at that time. It was owned by the Mafia and on June 28th, 1969, the police conducted one of their raids. Raids were common at the time, and if a (gay) women wasn’t wearing at least three items of ‘feminine clothing’, they were arrested. Those in gender opposite clothing were submitted to humiliating ‘gender checking’ and arrested. This raid, however, did not go as planned, and many, particularly the lesbians and drag queens and twinks, began to fight back. Many believe riots were instigated after drag queen Sylvia Rivera threw pennies and quarters at police. Three nights of riots ensued, which included another drag queen, Marsha P. Johnson smashing a police car window with her hand bag.

It was the first time gay people had come together as a community, and the events at Stonewall ignited widespread, worldwide LGBT activism. On the other coast line, one well-known Amerian political activist was José Julio Sarria ,also known under her drag name Empress José I the Widow Norton, who was a drag queen and went on to found the Imperial Court System.

 During his performances, he supposedly warned people of police entrapment schemes through his song lyrics. In 1961, he was the first openly gay person to run for public office. He campaigned for San Francisco City supervisor, the same postition that Harvey Milk would win 16 years later. He didn’t win, but came in 9th out of 32, which was significant for the gay community at the time. In 1970 the first ever gay Pride happened. It’s because of these drag queens, and these people, that we have many of the freedoms we enjoy today. Drag has finally come into it's own in the late 80"s and 90's with the like of some high profile queens, and for the most part are being accepted pretty well. And the scene has burst with all types.

 

Bermuda Triangle 

 

But more on the later. Just remember don't piss off a drag queen! They wear those high heels for a reason.

The Gay Community Mourns The Widow Norton

It is a sad day for the gay, drag, and I'm sure for the Imperial Court of New York communities.! Gone is a true queen in every sense. In 1964 Jose Sarria declared himself "Empress José I, The Widow Norton" and founded the Imperial Court System and was also the first openly gay person to seek political office in America,   From the Sfist......

Tomorrow, ladies and gentlemen, there will be a drag funeral on Nob Hill the likes of which have perhaps never been seen before in San Francisco, or anywhere. We're talking about the "state funeral services" for Jose Sarria, a.k.a. Empress I de San Francisco, The Widow Norton. True to Sarria's big personality, and being the founder of the theatrical Imperial Court organization, he has left behind detailed instructions, including a dress code, for the funeral, which is taking place at 11 a.m. at Grace Cathedral.

Sarria died on August 19 at the age of 90, and as SFist discussed then, he's been called the Rosa Parks of the Gay Rights Movement for good reason. Going back to the mid-1950s, Sarria was an out and proud gay man in an era when hardly anyone was out, and when gay people were routinely harassed and arrested by the police. Beginning with his platform as a cocktail waiter and performer at the Black Cat bar in North Beach, Sarria encouraged patrons to stand up for themselves, and to subvert the laws targeted at them through various clever means. For instance, on Halloween when men in drag were often arrested under the auspices of an archaic law that forbid dressing as a woman "with the intent to deceive," he made pins for his drag queen friends that said "I am a boy" in order to avoid arrest. He also began a movement to get gay men who were arrested in bar raids and subjected to public scorn through newspapers to plead not guilty en masse, causing a backup of cases in local courts and eventually leading to a decrease of frivolous arrests by police.

He went on to become the first openly gay person to run for political office in the U.S., narrowly losing a bid for the S.F. Board of Supervisors in 1961, and then to declare himself Empress I in 1965, in a gesture to beloved legendary kook Emperor Joshua Norton — a Barbary Coast-era lunatic who declared himself Emperor of the United States a century before.

Fittingly, Sarria long ago purchased a burial plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in Colma adjacent to Joshua Norton's, and he will be buried there tomorrow after the services at Grace Cathedral.

As this announcement by the Imperial Court details, Sarria requested that all "female" Court members, i.e. the Empresses who followed him in annual coronation ceremonies here and in other chapter organizations around the country, come in "full-length (understated) Mourning attire" including, but obviously not limited to, "Crowns, Shoulder Length Veils Covering both Crowns and one's face, and Black gloves (opera length if wearing short sleeves)." You can imagine, with all these drag queens involved, the spectacle that's taking shape. Also, even though the performing drag queen community of S.F. doesn't often overlap with the Imperial Court community, tomorrow's services are undoubtedly going to bring these worlds together. As local drag star Juanita More tells us, "I will be wearing a veil. And I'll be getting into drag at 8 a.m."

Today, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. there is a public viewing at Halsted N Grey, Carew and English Funeral Home at 1123 Sutter Street.

The church services will be followed by a formal burial, after which there will be a reception in the Castro, at The Lookout.

See some fun old photos of Sarria on this memorial page. Below, Sarria's instructions for his funeral.

At Our Beloved Jose’s Request

All International Court System Monarchs, Titleholders and Line Members planning to attend our beloved Jose’s Imperial State Funeral are honorably and respectfully requested to wear crowns and mourning attire of the titles bestowed.

• Male Titleholders and Line members are respectfully requested to wear dark suits, crowns and white gloves
• Female Titleholders and Line members are respectfully requested to wear black/dark full length (understated)Mourning attire, Crowns, Shoulder Length Veils Covering both Crowns and one’s face and
• Black gloves (opera length if wearing short sleeves).

 

Drag History Continues- The Imperial Court

The Imperial Court of New York is a social, fundraising organization which has raised and donated back into the community millions of dollars to both social and health support organizations. In addition to their own fundraising, they often lend support and talent to other organizations in their ventures by performing, selling raffles, or just adding beauty and style. The mission of the Imperial Court is to raise funds for organizations including those supporting the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered community, HIV/AIDS services and youth enrichment programs. It was all started in 1984 by it's founder, Empress I Jose, the Widow Norton she declared herself, starting the long line of Emperors and Empresses since then.



Empress I Jose, is recognized around the world as one of the pioneers of the gay and transgender movements of modern times,and a major figure of study in gay and lesbian studies in colleges across the country. Empress VII, Coco LaChine,the Celestial Dragon Empress is currently Heir Apparent.



Coco's visibility and tireless activism have made her one of New York's most popular and respected drag queens. The membership is broad and varied from carpenters, therapists, florists, jewelers, performers, retail workers and many more,and they all enjoy the "game"of court and royalty such as being Lord and Ladies, Dukes and Duchesses, and Prince and Princesses all for much needed monies and social awareness. Hell, fellow blogger Empress Beth already has a title so she would fit right in. The biggest night in the drag world is The Imperial Court's Night of a Thousand Gowns. The first one was in 1985 and under the reign of Empress Sybil, and was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. Since then it's moved locations but is always a very up-scale event and will cost $300 and up for tickets for the whole evening and usually $125 at the door for entry after all the opening acts and dinner. Night of a Thousand Gowns is every March, and besides the big hair, bigger jewels, and the biggest regal attire you can find, it is a chance for the hundreds of drag queens and their men to show off their finery while fund raising thousands for the community. If you ever have a chance to go even once it is a wonderful evening you won't forget!