José Sarria: September Portrait of the Month

Jose Sarria, 1999.

José Julio Sarria (1922-2013) was a drag performer and activist for LGBTQ civil rights who is largely credited as being the first gay man in the United States to run for public office.

He served in World War II and on his return to San Francisco where he was born, intended to teach, but this was derailed by a morals charge. Sarria became a waiter at the Black Cat Café where he eventually performed in drag, singing arias from Bizet’s Carmen in full female costume, and became an ad hoc advisor to gay patrons. Following a period in the late 1950s of increased police pressure against gays and gay establishments around the city, Sarria decided in 1961 to run for San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors—this, more than a decade before Harvey Milk’s election to the Board. He finished ninth in a field of some thirty candidates, forcing future political candidates to see the gay community as a significant voting bloc requiring at least token consultation. Sarria went on to form several significant community self-help and gay advocacy groups, including SIR (the Society for Individual Rights), the Tavern Guild–the country’s first gay business association—and, as self-proclaimed first Empress of San Francisco, the Imperial Court System which, through its many chapters around the country, has played a significant role in local LGBTQ communities by spearheading AIDS fundraising and services, human rights advocacy, and serving as a link and contributor to many LGBT groups and initiatives.