Note: Headline USA’s policy is not to use pronouns in stories involving transgender individuals whose preferred pronouns differ from their biological ones.
(Headline USA) Despite the massive public pushback on transgender efforts to foist sexual deviancy onto children and the public at large, blue-state activists are continuing to redouble their efforts.
San Francisco on Thursday named the nation’s first drag laureate, an ambassador-style position designed to represent the city’s famous LGBT community.
In a city known for its ever-growing homeless population, violent crime, rampant drug abuse and efforts to push slavery reparations with an astronomical price tag, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said it was a natural step to create a position that not only embraces drag culture but puts government resources toward it.
D’Arcy Drollinger, a well-known drag performer and nightclub owner, will receive a $55,000 stipend in the 18-month role as the city’s inaugural drag laureate.
“My goals are to make San Francisco sparkle,” Drollinger said.
“I think drag performers bring a lot of sparkle and humor and glamor and silliness to the world,” Drollinger added. “I think that is part of why drag is so successful.”
However, with a “stipend” slightly above the median annual salary for normal, working-class Americans, Drollinger expected the commitment to be a major undertaking as well.
“I’m going to be in drag pretty much 24/7 for the next 18 months.”
Drollinger noted San Francisco’s drag community is already politically engaged and active.
“There’s a lot of power for the drag community in San Francisco,” Drollinger said. “I feel very honored to be able to take that one more step.”
West Hollywood is on the verge of appointing its own drag laureate later this month, though at a much lower salary and with limited engagements.
In New York, a 2021 effort to create such a position has languished in a committee, reflecting the challenges of creating such jobs even in far-left cities.
In San Francisco, Drollinger will inaugurate the role three weeks before “Pride Month” begins.
The duties will span from producing and participating in drag events to serving as a spokesperson for San Francisco’s LGBT community to helping officials ensure the city’s drag history is “shared, honored and preserved.”
The job posting sought someone who will “embody San Francisco’s historic, diverse and inclusive drag culture, elevating the entire community on the national and international stage.”
The city’s mayor called Drollinger a “bright star in San Francisco″ for elevating the city’s drag community.
“Whether it’s through a tragedy or to celebrate an occasion, she [sic] really has been a leader in this community and supporter of so many others,” Breed told the Associated Press.
Drollinger felt both nervous and honored to be offered the job given the growing backlash, even in the Bay Area, from those who have no interest in being subjected to overly sexualized gender-bending spilling from late-night cabaret clubs into their everyday lives—and those of their children.
“I know that there are a lot of anti-drag folks out there, and they are very loud, right?” Drollinger said.
“But I also don’t want to live my life under the shadow of fear,” Drollinger added. “I don’t want to have intimidation stop me from growing. So, yes, I am a little nervous. But I got a lot of fabulous people and fabulousness behind me.”
Members of the Proud Boys sparked a hate crimes investigation when they protested outside a Bay Area library hosting Drag Story Hour last June.
Jonathan Hamilt, executive director of Drag Story Hour, a global nonprofit event network that began in San Francisco in 2015, said he hopes other cities across the country will enact their own drag laureate programs.
“It’s just having that visibility and having that personal human connection—having that social story of someone from your community that looks like you or someone that you see or interact with on a regular basis,” Hamilt said.
New York City Councilmember Kristin Richardson Johnson plans to keep pushing for a drag laureate in her city if the position doesn’t win support this year. Jack McClatchy, the elected official’s legislative and budget director, couldn’t give a specific reason for why the effort has stalled, only noting that it’s one of more than 1,000 bills before the council.
West Hollywood, which was founded in part by LGBT activists in 1984, is expected to name its drag laurate in the coming weeks after a 2021 attempt failed over a pay dispute. Officials originally advertised the position with a $5,000 stipend, nearly double what the city’s poet laureate gets. Pushback prompted the council to raise it to $15,000 annually for the two-year term that begins July 16—International Drag Day.
Drollinger owns the Oasis nightclub, which hosted “ Meals on Heels ” after the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, where drag performers brought food, cocktails and socially distant lip-synching performances to home-bound customers.
“I hope that the drag laureate position telegraphs to the rest of the country that drag is not something to be scared of,” Drollinger said. “Drag is something to celebrate.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
