A Splendid Way to Go For A Gay Rights Fighter

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  Pallbearers walk with the casket at Grace Cathedral during the funeral for Jose Julio Sarria, known as Empress Jose I, San Francisco's most famous drag queen and the nation's first openly gay candidate for political office. (Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle. Pulished at Chronicle)  

San Francisco put on a funeral fit for an empress at Grace Cathedral on Friday forJose Julio Sarria, a drag queen who became a pioneer in the gay rights movement.

The funeral combined all the pomp of theEpiscopal Church with the flamboyance of gay life. The Right Rev. Mark Handley Andrus, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, presided. Two empresses and two public officials were among those who gave eulogies.

Sarria's official title was Empress Jose I, the Widow Norton, and his ceremony looked like one of those state funerals held for royalty in Victorian times. Some mourners wore long dresses with trains; the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence had a place of honor.

Sarria was hailed as a colorful pioneer in many guises, and also as a great man.

State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, compared him to Rosa Parks, a heroine of the civil rights movement in the 196os. Sarria, he said, had a passion and a mission: "He stood for justice. He said, 'There is nothing wrong with being gay, the crime is being caught.' "

Sarria's funeral - attended by civic dignitaries and persons dressed in the black lace of widows, and held in the Nob Hill cathedral that represents the very pinnacle of the San Francisco establishment - was a milestone in the long road to recognition by the gay community.

Waiter at Black Cat

When he started in public life, Sarria was "the nightingale of Montgomery Street," a singing waiter at the old Black Cat, a bohemian bar that welcomed gay customers. He often dressed as an opera diva and sang arias. The police often raided the Black Cat and hauled off anyone suspected of being homosexual.

"From the Black Cat to the Grace Cathedral. Now I've seen everything," said Maurice Gerry, an old friend of Sarria's. He is a member of the City Council in Liberty, N.Y., and gave one of several eulogies.

Sarria, who was born in San Francisco in 1922, died at his home in Albuquerque on Aug. 19 at the age of 90.

He was not only a political pioneer - the first openly gay political candidate in the United States - but a veteran entertainer and civic organizer.

1st Imperial Court

He founded the first Imperial Court in San Francisco in 1965, and the movement spread all over the country, and to Canada and Mexico. Now there are more than 70 imperial courts, which raise millions of dollars for gay and other causes.

"It is a bit like the British Empire," Leno said, "The sun never sets on the Imperial Court."

Sarria "was a trailblazer for modern gay rights," said Nicole Murray-Ramirez, who was dressed in a long gown and paused to remember Sarria before the service.

"You can remember as well as I do what it was like in the '6os," Murray-Ramirez said. "I was tired of being a second-class citizen."

Like others, Murray-Ramirez said Sarria's message was that people should always be who they really are.

Sarria's picture on the cover of the program Friday showed a small man with rimless glasses. He looked like anybody's grandfather. But he was a man of many parts. A veteran of World War II, an entertainer, a man of deep emotion, a joker, and a man who helped others.

Some of the speakers told stories that had the mourners laughing, some told about his last days, and had the audience wiping tears from their eyes.

Leno recalled how Sarria had filed to run for the Board of Supervisors in 1961, when some political candidates had claimed San Francisco politicians were too lenient with homosexuals. Sarria finished 29th out of a field of 33 candidates, but it was a start.

"After that," Leno said, "no candidate in San Francisco would run without coming knocking on the gay community's door. "He changed the political landscape of San Francisco."

Leno paused for a long second. "Forever!" he said.

Police escort cortege

Sarria's long cortege led from Nob Hill, through the city, to Colma. The cortege was escorted by two dozen San Francisco police motorcycle officers, from the same force that used to round up gays.

Sarria was buried in a grave next to the last resting place of Joshua Abraham Norton, better known at Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

In different ways, the two men are legends.

by Carl Nolte a San Francisco ChronicleReporter