Characters, With Punctuation

Miss Uranus Pageant early 2000s. This year it was won by Rodney O’Neal Austin (“Miss Minnie Pearl Necklace”) and Justin Bond (later Mx Justin Vivian Bond) as conjoined twins in a single dress, one a “nymphomaniac” and the other a lesbian separatist. The cutie to their right is my now-husband Ken. For more on Club Uranus see Michael Flanagan’s superb 2015 article at https://www.ebar.com/entertainment/culture/179890 photo credit Marc Geller 2020

The posts in this section are mostly based on interviews I did beginning in the ’90s, of people whose work in the community I loved but who were not yet given a lot of mainstream press. I didn’t see it as my job to be a “critic” or act as an expert, but to celebrate their talents– and help share them. This first one was based on 1994 interviews with George Matson, who founded the Stud bar in 1964, with its DJ “LaRue” in 1994, and then with Snow White and Mica Sigourney when the bar was closed, a casualty of Covid-19, in 2020.

The Stud: Decade by Decade

Hannah Sim 03/30/62-11/04/20

The Quilt Goes to Motown 1988

My Dad Budgie