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 NOSTALGIA IIII

Lady Bunny, Mistress Formica, Sweetie, Anna Conda, Tabooo

In the spring of 1969, the modern gay rights movement was emerging in the United States after all the Stonewall Riots were done. With any drag revues shuttering and the after math of the riots drag was getting near extinct with exemption to major gay clubs...and even then was falling out of vogue. A few queens in the 70's early eighties got things started up again, with exemption to the few well known female impersonators, like Jim Bailey and Charles Pierce.

  Divine was one of the first on the scene and was one of the first queens to break into huge mainstream culture, notably in the films of director John Water. Her fearless and uncompromising manner influenced others to be a badass bitch like herself. Tragically, she died of heart failure in 1988 at the age of 42. Meanwhile on the West Coast we had the like of Pristine Condition

and May Doll,

Jean Hardlows

bringing drag slowly back into the light.

Meanwhile in New York, Mother Flawless Sabrina was out and proud. The flawless one challenged LGBT issues  all along  the east coast and led in rallies against New York businesses that refused to serve gay Americans. She was arrested more than 100 times during her fight to normalize cross-dressing.

Sarria A.K.A. The Widow Norton, Absolute Empress I de San Francisco, was the first openly gay candidate to run for public office in the United States, paving the way for other gay politicians to follow. From the west coast, she was an activist for gay rights during the 1960 and 70's. Sarria also founded the International Court System of the United States which helps aid LGBT issues. Sadly Sarria died in 2013 at age 90.

Pepper LaBeija who was known as “the last remaining queen of the Harlem drag balls”, LaBeija had a successful career as a fashion designer. She ruled the drag scene of the ’70s and early ’80s with her wild persona alongside queens Angie Xtravaganza, Dorian Corey and Avis Pendavis. She passed away in 2003 at the age of 53.

But then in the late 80's there was a drag explosion! I myself firmly believe, in part it was the NYC club kids and Leigh Bowery and the arrival of a yet to be known Rupaul, Lady Bunny and Lahomma Van Zant who arrived from Atlanta with their looks and shtick to get things jump started.

Lady Bunny with Leigh Bowery

Lady Bunny and Rupaul

LaHomma Van Zandt

The club kids with Amanda Lepore

It was glamorous, glitter-drenched nights that crept into mornings. From notorious East Village spots like the Pyramid Club to mega venues like the Palladium, Roxy, the Limelight and The Tunnel, it seemed more and more people were taking notice of drag again....and soon a evolution and eventual explosion of drag into a widely-acknowledged subculture. But in my mind, it wasn't until the 90's that drag really went nuts. I remember living in Harrisburg and started going out in the mid 90's right out of college. I became enthralled by drag when I first met Lady Bunny in New York and that was that. But outside of the big cities it was still risky. It was to the true God Mother of drag, Rupaul, who got to big for New York and went mainstream.

After that, drag came out of the closet and never did go back in. All of a sudden , even in Harrisburg and other little cities drag queens went from 2 to like 20 over night it seemed. Rupaul was everywhere, radio, tv, a talk show and it seemed hard to find anyone who disliked him. RuPaul,to me, really altered history more then anyone. I know people who watch Rupaul's Drag Race, who I never thought would.....and they can't get enough. These queens of the 90's really did bring drag out, and into everybody's face, like Lady Bunny who put on the wildly popular Wigstock every year, and drag shows at clubs would be packed...even still to date. I knew drag was here to stay when one New Year's Eve, yours truly in 2000, went to a party. I was decked in a white floor length,  skin tight gown, that was  lace, beaded and pearled, huge hair with white plumes and doves in it and jewelry. I was informed the party was going downtown right before midnight to watch the ball drop in the center of Harrisburg. Well, I had never been in drag outside a gay club, in a huge crowd before. The friends I went with had rented a limo, which we drove down in. Once there, we got out. I was shocked by the reception. People were enamored by me. people talking to me, and commenting my look. There was even a huge fraternity there from Penn State and they had a group picture taken with me. It was quite something. And this was a time when Harrisburg was not as gay friendly as it is currently.  I swear it was because of Rupaul!!! Everybody loved her and was all curious about drag. I firmly believe because her him, drag was more accepted and more mainstream then ever before. Now we have drag queens on web shows, recording their own tracks and completion shows. And we have all our fore Queens to thank for that and Rupaul. We must always remember our roots and history.

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).