SF considers establishing trail-blazing new city office of 'drag laureate'
Who should be the queen of queens?
Peter-Astrid Kane
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Sister Roma strikes a pose.Gooch
Although San Francisco nightlife is very much on pause due to the pandemic, it's still possible to look ahead and see green shoots for the city's LGBTQ+ community.
Supervisor Matt Haney wants to create a nightlife recovery fund to ensure that independent venues survive, for one. There may yet be a more targeted federal stimulus. And San Francisco may establish a new city-sanctioned office: that of drag laureate.
As the Bay Area Reporter noted, the idea was one of many in S.F.’s “LGBTQ+ Cultural Heritage Strategy,” a 2018 report that was revised in August amid nightlife’s pandemic near-extinction. The idea of creating another high-profile city position to advocate for queer culture and nightlife seems logical enough, although it may have detractors among fiscal hawks. A formal cost-benefit analysis could probably yield more specific insights; drag performers are known for making magic happen with $10 and a roll of Scotch tape — meaning a negligible net fiscal impact for a city in the red.