D’Arcy Drollinger, a veteran of San Francisco’s vibrant drag scene, has been named the city’s first Drag Winner and will serve as an ambassador for San Francisco’s drag and LGBTQ2S+ community during the mission. 18-month period, the office of the Mayor of London Breed announced on Thursday.
This is the first location of its kind in the country.
“While drag culture is under attack in other parts of the country, in San Francisco, we support and uplift the great drag performers who are,” Breed said in a press release. through their art and advocacy have contributed to our City’s history of citizenship and equality. .
Drollinger says she’s “proud to live in a city that is pioneering this position while other parts of the United States and the world may not support Drag. This role will build bridges and create partnerships, and enhance and celebrate the Art of Drag.
According to Drollinger, manipulative is a way for many people “not allowed to shine in their real life and true selves” to seek refuge, she told CNN.
SAN FRANCISCO HAS A RICH HISTORY OF DRAG
Breed officially announced the creation of the Drag Laureate program in the city budget in June 2022, but the concept was first introduced in August 2020 in a report from the Heritage Task Force. San Francisco’s LGBTQ2S+ Culture, a city-supported task force that reviewed community feedback on LGBTQ2S+ needs and concerns.
Among other strategies, the task force recommends improving partnerships between city agencies and community organizations to expand creative programs for LGBTQ2S+ artists, including “create and fund LGBTQ2S+ artist residency opportunities”.
Finding space for gay advertising is an issue that Drollinger understands very well, as she opened the popular Oasis pub and nightclub in 2015 to provide medium-sized venue space for performers as well. drag locally and touring. The survival and success of Oasis, through the pandemic, is critical to San Francisco’s drag community.
“It was important to have a space for everyone and Oasis became a hub,” Drollinger said.
Scissors has a rich history in San Francisco, both as a prized art form and as a means of protest. Dating back to the 1950s, nightclubs like Black Cat and Finocchio’s have attracted both gay and heterosexual audiences. The Compton Café riot in the city’s Tenderloin district became one of the first notable acts of outlandish protest in 1966 – three years before New York City’s famous Stonewall riots.
Drollinger, a San Francisco native, has always been drawn to the city’s vibrant creative gay scene.
“There is something in the water. What I find interesting about San Francisco is that there is still a willingness to experiment here that I haven’t found in many other places. People are willing to make things and play with things purely for the pleasure of making art,” says Drollinger.
She commends the city for its efforts to take the lead in promoting towing, especially at a time when drag performance is under attack. By making the Scissors Winner an official city seat, which is provided with a $55,000 grant, Drollinger said San Francisco sends a message about the “legitimacy” of scissors.
“(San Francisco) doesn’t ask for volunteers. They are asking us to be a diplomat and come out and be a part of the city.”
THE IMPORTANCE OF DRAG FOR APPLICATIONS
Before Per Sia, one of the Drag Laureate subscribers, started wearing scissors costumes, they fell in love with the art form as a photographer, photographing drag queens in South Central Los Angeles and San Francisco. They love the extravagance and celebrity-like personalities that drag queens embody but feel too shy and anxious to drag themselves.
The first time Per Sia wore scissors was 16 years ago during a challenge, to perform in San Francisco’s Castro District. The experience was revealing and they have not looked back.
“After I [performed]I had this feeling of joy, of power that I had never felt before and I fell in love with it,” Per Sia said.
They balance pull performance with their second career as an art educator. Per Sia, who jokes that they can “teach the little kids” during the day and “perform in front of the older kids” at night, sees drag as a tool to educate people, outside besides entertaining them.
They combine the two professions as a regular for Drag Story Hour, a program in which drag queens read stories to children to promote self-expression. They read for the San Francisco Public Library and Pride of Oakland events, and Per Sia enjoys teaching kids about “thinking out of the box” through these hours of storytelling.
Per Sia says: “When you were a kid, it was all about using your imagination, glittering things and using all the colors, but at some point, all of that will be taken away. “The benefit of dragging is that you teach the kids that there are other ways to live.”
Scissors has always been a part of Drollinger’s life, but it’s been a slow process for her to accept scissors as her “work clothes” until she’s in her 40s. She believes drag helped her find her community and identity.
“A lot of people find resistance, they find it when they are not allowed to shine in their real life and their greatness is extinguished,” says Drollinger. “Drag is a way to get rid of a lot of that.”
While San Francisco raises the bar, conservative lawmakers around the country are cracking down on it
Drag Laureate’s appointment comes at a time when public drag shows and transgender expression are being threatened by conservative lawmakers around the country.
“San Francisco’s commitment to inclusiveness and the arts is fundamental to what we are as a city,” Breed wrote in a November statement. “Draw artists helped pave the way for rights and representation. of LGBTQ2S+ throughout our city, and they are part of what makes our city special.”
Laws to ban or limit drag are being pushed forward in many Republican-led states. Republican lawmakers have claimed that tug of war shows children are exposed to inappropriate sexual themes and images, although many tug of war shows take place in gendered locations. Age restrictions or parental consent is required to attend.
In March 2023, Tennessee became the first state to pass a law banning tug-of-war performances in public areas and in venues where children can watch performances.
Drollinger feels the impact of national opposition to her work, even in a city known for its progressive values. She spent more money on security at the Oasis to make sure audiences and performers felt safe, she told CNN.
“Creating these kinds of laws, slandering transgender people and the LGBTQ2S+ community, what they are doing is inciting violence,” Drollinger said. “It’s so scrary. They want to delete my community and delete us.
Both Per Sia and Drollinger hope that by pioneering the Drag Laureate position, San Francisco will set an example of tolerance for others to follow.
“Important things happen here in San Francisco and the world takes notice. Having this place for someone like me or anyone who has signed up is incredibly special, but it also shows the world that drag is powerful and it deserves a spot,” Per Sia speak.
