Drag in San Francisco isn’t just fabulous. It’s a way of life
San Francisco's Drag Laureate Per Sia on nightlife, Drag Story Hour, and her role as the city's first transgender ambassador to the LGBTQ+ community
Mark
“Drag is everything,” says San Francisco‘s Drag Laureate Per Sia — you can call her “Persia” — who made history last year by becoming the first transgender woman to hold the position.
“Drag can be sexy. Drag can be extremely educational. Drag can be silly. Drag can be spooky,” she shares. “Drag can be anything.”
With her own intersecting identities and interests, Per Sia, 44, would know.
A first-generation trans Mexican-American, she arrived in San Francisco from South Central Los Angeles in 2002, carrying a Bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz.
She soon started performing at the iconic Esta Noche nightclub in the city’s Mission District; offstage, she became an educator with San Francisco’s Children’s After School Arts Program.
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Striking a pose with long gold-lacquered nails at her installation as Drag Laureate last December, Per Sia told Mayor Daniel Lurie and a crowd of enthusiastic supporters, “I hope this role will help give face — and voice — to these communities I come from, the communities that make our city magic.”
“There is no city like San Francisco,” she said to cheers.
Created in 2023 by the mayor’s office and the San Francisco Public Library, the Drag Laureate serves as an official cultural ambassador for the city’s LGBTQ+ community, nightlife, and the art of drag. The three-year role involves spearheading drag events, advocating for literacy and inclusivity, and leading civic pride celebrations.
That includes everything from ribbon cuttings, community forums, and marching with the library at the San Francisco Pride Parade, to an appearance at the Hunky Jesus contest at Dolores Park and joining fellow dignitaries at the annual commemoration of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire each April.
“It was like five in the morning, and I got up and really startled everyone because I’m really loud in front of a microphone,” she says with a laugh, remembering the pre-dawn downtown ceremony.
The city with a welcoming history of drag
San Francisco’s recorded history of drag goes almost as far back as the city’s birth, with clubs in the 1930s like Finocchio’s, a Prohibition-era speakeasy turned drag destination, and the Black Cat in the same North Beach neighborhood.
In the 1950s, gay trailblazer Jose Sarria was doing drag at the Black Cat, where he sang opera for clubgoers interspersed with calls to “come out.”
In the 1960s, trans and drag-clad patrons at Compton’s Cafeteria battled cops in an historic riot in the Tenderloin neighborhood, transforming drag into a political issue for the nascent “gay liberation” movement, while transgressive artists like the Cockettes staked a claim in San Francisco’s counterculture. Milk’s election in 1977 cemented San Francisco’s reputation as the country’s queer political and cultural capital.
“Drag is everything,” Per Sia reminds us.
Reading is fundamental
The educator and drag artist made her own important contribution to that history, although she didn’t know it at the time , with Drag Story Hour, the first program of its kind, created in partnership with the San Francisco Public Library in 2015. It inspired dozens of similar events around the country — and a right-wing backlash. The first was at the Castro District’s Harvey Milk Branch of the library in December 2015.
“Drag Story Hour sparked my interest because it was the first time where I, as an educator, was gonna blend my nightlife with my day life,” Per Sia recalls.
“But back then, in particular, there was this huge stigma of queer people working with children, and so the first time I did it, I was really nervous, because I had kept my worlds separate, but Drag Story Hour broke that.
“I remember reading a book about a unicorn. I can’t remember the title right now, and I was shaking; I was so nervous. But then after I was done, I remember this feeling of like, liberation. I felt lighter. I felt like I didn’t have to hide anymore, and it was just such a moment of relief.
“This was the most liberating experience I’ve ever had as an educator and as a drag performer,” she recalls.
“It really is one of my favorite jobs in the whole entire world because I get to bring everything that I love into a space and showcase it to kids and their families, and when they see my joy, it transfers. It transfers. That’s what keeps me going.”
When asked if drag is political, Per Sia tells us: “It’s funny, because one of my taglines is, ‘I’m not political, but my life is.’ So, yes. It is political.”
She is “librarian adjacent“
While discussing her new role as San Francisco’s Drag Laureate, Per Sia can’t say enough about her respect and admiration for librarians.
“I’ve had a great relationship with the San Francisco Public Library, and they’ve sort of taken me under their wing. And I love librarians. I always say that I’m ‘librarian adjacent,’ and wherever I go, I’m always repping SFPL,” she tells us.
“SFPL is more than just books. It’s a space where everyone’s invited, but it also has tremendous resources. Like, the reason why my financial situation has gotten so much better is that I am going through a program through the library. There are so many resources for everyone, and even if they don’t have it, they will point you on the right path to get yourself situated.”
But it’s reading that’s at the heart of Per Sia’s history with the library, namely, the curiosity that books inspire in both her and the kids she reads for.
One of her favorite questions she asks in her role as Drag Laureate is even, “What was your favorite book as a child?”
“For some people, it’s a hard question,” Per Sia says.
“But then, you know what happens? People stop, and they start thinking about it. And that moment of pause and that moment of reflection is really incredible to watch, because we don’t often have the time to stop and reflect.”
Day to Night: Drag in the city
Per Sia’s drag home today is El Rio in the Mission District.
“I was drag homeless, I guess you could say, for a very long time, and then El Rio took me in, and they really treat me like the queen there, because I am,” she says.
Although, when asked about the best of drag in San Francisco today, Per Sia says, “It’s whatever you’re into.”
“This is the beauty of San Francisco, that San Francisco can’t be defined by anything.”
“If you’re looking for some spooky drag” — she calls that “dark music with a dark look, maybe a little gothicky” — “maybe at the Eagle. Maybe at Powerhouse,” two traditionally leather and kink bars in the SoMA neighborhood.
“Or if you’re looking for something, you know, glamorous and high-production, you could go to Beaux,” in the Castro, “and now Oasis,” also in SoMA,” which recently “reopened, thank God.”
“If you’re looking for like punk and alternative or whatever, you could go to El Rio.”
Aunt Charlie’s Lounge in the Tenderloin is a dime-sized bar that features drag queens who’ve seen more San Francisco history than most.
“The performers are a little older, and I love that because we all need space to perform. Whether you’re like 20 or 50 or 60, we should all have that space,” Per Sia explains.
Where you go “really depends on what you’re into,” Per Sia says, “or if you’re open to anything. It’s all these things available, and sometimes even in the same party.”
Daytime Realness at El Rio is an example.
“You can have someone like Miss Ronnie do like an amazing disco medley and bring the house down. But then you can have another performer do like some spooky dark performance, and that’s the beauty of our city. That as performers, we’re allowed to just express whatever is going on, be it a heartbreak or maybe it’s something political,” she says.
“There’s space for you to express yourself in drag.”
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