The Triumphant Return of the Fabulous Harlow

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Darlings, if you’ve listened to our podcast (which you should, as all right-thinking people do), you may have heard us talk – or more accurately – gush about legendary drag queen and trans woman Rachel Harlow. Originally a drag queen from South Philly, she first appeared in the 1968 documentary The Queen where she got read for filth by co-legend Crystal LaBeija:

But her life was so much more than this one moment. She premiered the doc at Cannes, where she dined with Capote and Welles and danced with Sharon Tate, this drag queen from South Philly.

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She spent time in Hollywood, eventually appearing in a film, A SAFE PLACE, with Jack Nicholson and Orson Welles.

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And when she returned to her hometown, she opened Philly’s first and greatest discotheque, Harlow’s. She was feted by the local press and treated like one of the city’s most exciting citizens, appearing on talk shows and modeling in local fashion shows

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Her gender confirmation surgery made local headlines.

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She entered into a very public relationship with Princess Grace’s brother Jack Kelly, a local golden boy and city councilman.

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But his political opponents and his mother both threatened to make a big stink about the relationship and it eventually ended.

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There’s so much more about her story, which is why we reached out to her two years ago and took on the honor of collaborating with her on her memoirs. The book is still very much in the proposal stage, but we were absolutely thrilled to land this feature article for the Philadelphia Inquirer, the first time she’s spoken about her life in over thirty years.

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She’s gracious, and beautiful and incredibly wise after all of the ups and downs of living a public life as a trans woman over fifty years ago and she’s ready to tell her story now, because she quite rightly feels there’s power in reminding people that a city like Philly embraced a trans woman a half century ago and elevated her as one of its leading citizens. Sometimes, a trailblazer is a trailblazer simply because she was brave enough to demand a life on her own terms. That’s Rachel Harlow to a tee. You can read her story here.

• Drag History
• LGBTQ
• Rachel Harlow