FOR MORE THAN half a century, José Julio Sarria, once dubbed the "Nightingale of Montgomery Street," nurtured San Francisco's and America's gay communities through the periods of McCarthyism, the backlash against gay rights and AIDS.

His courage and conviction inspired lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons to seek elective office.

Today, San Francisco dedicates the block of 16th Street in front of the Harvey Milk/Eureka Valley Branch Library as "José Sarria Court," thus honoring a pioneer who has not received widespread recognition, but is believed to be the first openly gay person to ever run for public office in our country.

May the goal for today's dedication of José Sarria Court be the first step in a larger effort to establish a permanent home in the Castro for the GLBT Historical Society (, possibly co-located with the Harvey Milk Branch Library as a museum, archive and research center for the GLBT community's history.

Sarria is a living San Francisco hero, who displayed courage, optimism and, yes, even campy humor, in the face of daunting odds. In doing so, he shaped the city of San Francisco as it is today.

A short history of José Julio Sarria

The following excerpt from Michael Robert Gorman's biography, "The Empress Is a Man" (Haworth Press, 1998) chronicles Sarria's incredible life and provides the historical framework to understand Sarria's contributions.

A World War II veteran, Sarria, entered San Francisco as a waiter at The Black Cat bar on Montgomery Street, where he served drinks and sang arias. It was a time of intense police harassment of gay people and gay establishments in San Francisco, where under California's sodomy law, gay men and women were routinely arrested.

Sarria gave the city's gay community hope -- with a dash of laughter.

His impromptu arias and memorable catchphrases helped keep bar patrons on their guard against police entrapment schemes: "There is nothing wrong with being gay," he would warn them. "The crime is getting caught!" Or, "United we stand, divided they catch us ... one by one by one."

He would nightly close the bar via a signature sing-along; a rowdy rendition of "God Save Us Nelly Queens." Sometimes Sarria would lead out the bar's patrons and drag entertainers to serenade gay people being held in jail.

The police attempted to close the The Black Cat in 1949 on the grounds that it "attracted gay people." The owners and clients sued, and in a landmark ruling, the California Supreme Court decided that a bar could not be closed "due to the clients it attracted."

In 1961, Sarria became the first openly gay man to run for public office, filing as a candidate for a seat as a San Francisco supervisor. He shocked both the city's gay and straight communities by amassing an impressive 5,600 votes; the first-ever demonstration of the political clout of a gay voting bloc. Sixteen years later, Sarria backed Harvey Milk's political campaign for city supervisor, defying the fears of many gay men and lesbian political leaders that Milk's openness would antagonize the city's heterosexual progressive politicians.

In 1963, facing ongoing police pressure, the owner of The Black Cat closed the bar. Within a week, police had closed five other gay bars, and by 1964 only 18 of the city's 30 primarily gay and lesbian drinking establishments remained.

Sarria and the bar owners formed the Tavern Guild and put on San Francisco's first large, public drag ball. More than 500 lesbians and gay men bravely crossed police lines and faced the camera flashes of police photographers to attend this ball, during which Sarria was crowned queen.

Drawing upon the legend of Emperor Norton, the eccentric 19th century San Franciscan miner and rice baron, who proclaimed himself emperor of the United States and Canada and protector of Mexico, Sarria named himself "Empress Jose I, the Widow Norton."

The Tavern Guild began to hold an annual drag ball, marked by the election of a citywide empress to succeed Empress Jose. It developed the bylaws and functions for the Imperial Court of San Francisco, a local charity that raises money for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other charities through drag shows and other functions. By the early 1970s, similar court systems had been established in Vancouver and Portland, and over the next 40 years individual courts have been established in 66 cities, states or provinces in the United States and Canada.

Sarria's empire has become a strong grassroots with a national base. It also provided the training ground for GLBT leaders who created local and state organizations responding to the AIDS epidemic in states without large gay populations.

-- Permission is granted by The Haworth Press, Inc., to reproduce this excerpt.

José Sarria Court dedication

Who: José Sarria, as special guest.

Where: In front of the Harvey Milk/Eureka Valley Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, 3555 16th St., (between Pond and Prosper), San Francisco.

Why: To honor José Sarria as the first openly gay candidate for government office in the United States.

For more information: Call San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty's office, (415) 554-6968.