In 2002, musician Shawna Virago and filmmaker Christopher Lee became the first transgender Grand Marshals of the San Francisco Pride Parade. Lee, a trailblazing trans man and the co-founder of the Transgender Film Festival joined forces with punk-country-folk recording artist Virago to mount a vigorous campaign for the title.

Shawna writes, "Christopher and I clicked as friends in the 1990’s and found we shared a similar spirit of mischief. Neither of us fit very well into the gender binary or trans communities hell-bent on gender normalcy … and we had no intention of trying to.  We shared many adventures in punk rock inspired mayhem, but none sticks out like our run in 2002 when we were the first transgender people to be elected San Francisco Pride Parade Grand Marshals. At the time, the majority of Grand Marshal voting places were cis-gay male bars in the Castro. We couldn’t get a vote even if we bought the drinks! So we decided to ignore the rules and we ran our own campaign in places that our own communities congregated.  It was very DIY … trans parties, dyke bars, poster-making at Kinkos and midnight wheat-pasting poster runs throughout the city. Our “official” campaign photo was taken by Alex Austin on a disposable camera.

When the votes were tallied, we received the most votes in San Francisco Pride History."

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Christopher Lee passed away in 2012. After he was misgendered in the coroner's report, his friends, led by Maya Scott-Chung, advocated to change the law. With the aid of the Transgender Law Center, the Christopher Lee Respect After Death Act was passed in 2015  to recognize gender identity in death certificates in California. More information at the Transgender Law Center

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Shawna Virago continues to make an impact as a nationally touring transgender artist. Her latest album "Blood In Her Dreams" was released in 2024. Listen on her website at shawnavirago.com

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All the photos were taken by Alex Austin

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