BEYOND THE DRAG
SAN FRANCISCO (2020)
“It costs a lot to look this cheap,” is the motto of the Hot Boxx Girls, the crew of drag performers at Aunt Charlies Lounge. Opening in 1987, Aunt Charlies is now the last remaining gay bar in San Francisco’s rugged Tenderloin neighborhood, which at one point was an LGBT center-point. The venue is more than a dive bar, it is a bastion of old San Francisco in a quickly gentrifying city.
The drink are cheap, the vibe is kitschy, but the performers are as authentic as it gets. They come from a wide range of backgrounds, each with a story of their own and reasons for why drag has become a part of their lives. In a time where drag has joined mainstream pop culture, Aunt Charlies feels like a step back into time. On any given Friday and Saturday night, the Hot Boxx Girls put on a show featuring sing-a-long classics of the past to current top 40 numbers, and these girls have been working rooms long enough to know how to work a crowd. However, past the drama and flair of the performances lie stories of their pasts and ambitions from being former members of the armed services, to working with the elderly; they have tales which transcend drag.
They are correct that it costs a lot to put on their shows; the numerous outfits, wigs, makeup, jewelry, nails add up quickly. In some cases body modifications such as breast implants and hormone treatments are part of the package. Drag isn’t just about blurring gender lines and glam, there are personal reasons and deeper roots than are seen at a quick glance. These stories when paired with the role that Aunt Charlies has played in the history of San Francisco’s LGBT community make it a place that we should appreciate for as long as San Francisco has a pulse of counter culture left.