The Cockettes were a radical, glitter-drenched drag theater troupe born in San Francisco in 1969, at the height of the counterculture revolution. Founded by Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III), they blended drag, psychedelic performance art, political satire, and free-spirited chaos into midnight shows at the Palace Theater in North Beach. With thrift-store glamour, beards in sequins, and unapologetic gender-bending, the Cockettes challenged every idea of beauty, theater, and sexuality. Though their New York debut in 1971 was infamous for baffling critics, their influence reverberated—paving the way for generations of queer performers, from punk drag to modern RuPaul royalty.
