Flawless Sabrina

Flawless Sabrina (born circa 1940), also known as Jack Doroshow, is an American drag queen, performer and actress.[1] Flawless Sabrina was a pioneer for transgender and drag queen not only in the mainstream, heterosexual society, but within the gay society as well, where transgendered people remained heavily stigmatized. [2]

Early Life

Sabrina was a pioneer in the transgender and gay communities in the 1960s in New York. In the 1960s, New York drag queens were stigmatised greatly, not only by the mainstream society, but even within the gay community as well. Sabrina was one of the first widely known drag queens in the United States. She became widely known partially as she had been organising various Drag Queen pageants all over the U.S. such as "The Nationals", Miss Philadelphia or the Miss Nationals, which was sponsored by Sabrina Enterprises.[2]

During the filming of The Queen, one of Sabrina's most popular films, she took on the moniker of ‘The Mother’ to ensure the other participants in the pageants that she was not part of the competition. Very soon what was a joke, became a very personal title and she became a mentor to several other transgender people living in New York at the time. She was also a mentor for Ceyenne Doroshow, now an author, public speaker and advocate for homeless youth. They’d met at a club called Bentley and Sabrina helped her get control of her life, while she was a homeless teenager.[1]

Sabrina was arrested three times in 1968 while promoting her award-winning movie The Queen in Times Square, New York. Because of the success of her film, she was invited to speak on numerous talk shows and made television appearances in drag. This caused a lot of discomfort not only with the heterosexual and conservative public, but the gay public as well.[2]

Despite Sabrina's confidence with herself in drag on television and her appearances, she remained quite mysterious within the gay community, as recounted by Thom Nickels, author of Gay and Lesbian in Philadelphia. Though she was not a huge part of the centre city night life, she hosted several mansion parties. These parties were grandiose, decadent and had a two dollar ($2) entrance fee.[3]

Sabrina now lives in New York near Central Park, where she has been since the 1960s.

Career

The Queen is one of Sabrina's most well-known films. It is a documentary-style piece about her last drag queen pageant in 1967 in New York called Miss All America Beauty Pageant. It won an award at the Cannes Film Festival.[2] Dorian was a film by Michelle Handleman, involving Sabrina. This film is a coming of age tale following the main character, Dorian, from birth to death.[4] She plays a vision Dorian has of a thin, ghostly, violin-playing old man during a night of clubbing, after having taken drugs.[4]

Pink Flamingos directed by John Waters is a black comedy crime film focused on drag queens where Sabrina made a short cameo.[1]

She recently ran a fundraiser through her website and raised $20,000.00 to create an archive of her work for easy access and study. The fundraiser was founded by Sabrina, as well as Zackary Drucker and Diana Tourjee, two of Sabrina's mentees. The archive was created as a thank you to Sabrina for being inspirational to queer youth as well as a way of raising money to protect her when she was almost evicted from her New York apartment. The owner of the building had died, and once the ownership was returned to the bank they wished the hike the rent, or evict her. The archive money now funds a storage space where Tourjee archives Sabrina's possessions as they move them in.[1]

Filmography

Film Role Year
The Queen Actress/Director 1968
Dorian Dorian's Dead Self 2009
Pink Flamingos Cameo 1972
The Anderson Tapes Cameo 1971

Legacy

Sabrina took on the moniker of 'Mother' while filming The Queen and eventually ended up retaining the title. Ceyene Doroshow, public speaker and advocate for the homeless states that Sabrina saved her life. Sabrina's mentees also state, as part of their reason for the creation of the Sabrina Archives, that Sabrina has been and continues to be an influential part of the transgender community.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Queen Sabrina, Flawless Mother | VICE | United States". VICE. 2015-03-07. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Balzer, Carsten (2005-01-01). "The Great Drag Queen Hype: Thoughts on Cultural Globalisation and Autochthony". Paideuma. 51: 111–131.
  3. ↑
    1. Nickels, Thom. Gay And Lesbian Philadelphia. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2002. Web. https://books.google.com/books?id=TapnuOUmXo8C&pg=PA4&lpg=PA4&dq=Nickels,+Thom.+Gay+And+Lesbian+Philadelphia.+Charleston,+SC:+Arcadia,+2002.+Print&source=bl&ots=cvn3ELOsy2&sig=vBSGN3bsjMCTYXt_X1LrEiY1Ufs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZqo3K4IfQAhVJxoMKHbJNBcQQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
  4. 1 2
    1. null JOHNSON, KEN. "Art In Review". Query.nytimes.com. N.p., 2016. 3 Oct. 2016. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E3DC1E3BF931A15756C0A96F9C8B63
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