Donna Sachet, a drag performer, singer, writer and activist in San Francisco, will make history when she sings the national anthem at the San Francisco Giants baseball game on Tuesday, September 29. Donna has quite a resume – she's been Grand Marshal of the SF Pride parade, a board member of Equality California, a long-time member of the SF Gay Men's Chorus, and was named "First Lady of the Castro District" by California Assemblyman Mark Leno (and that's just a drop in the bucket of her fabulous life) – and this will be a very exciting and unique bullet point to add to it:
This time, Donna received an email invitation with plenty of notice and was happily able to accept. As she said, "I was hoping that the Giants weren't like the White House where once declined, another invitation was not to come." LOLsob!
Donna and Pat Gallagher, President of the Giants, met last year while working on a video for the SF Convention & Visitors Bureau annual luncheon. Donna mentioned her dream of singing at a game and Mr. Gallagher encouraged her to apply, suggesting that a demo CD would be a plus. Being the good Girl Scout that she is, Donna just happened to have a CD on her with a few songs she had prepared some time ago. Shortly thereafter, Donna received a call with an offer to sing, but was unable to attend the scheduled event due to a prior engagement. The season ended without another offer. Donna didn’t give up though, and she decided to try out again this season.
Personally, I'm a die-hard soccer hooligan, but I've always been a baseball fan too, and as a resident of San Francisco, the Giants are naturally where my affinity rests. I am so proud of them for being so progressive and awesome, and for embracing the diversity and love that defines the city they represent, the city I love so dearly. This won't be the first time they've made progressive waves – as Donna mentions in the article above, in 1994 the Giants became the first professional sports team to host an AIDS benefit game, which has become an annual event and has raised $1.3 million for AIDS education and research.
It's refreshing to see a team challenge the sadly prevalent attitudes of homophobia and intolerance in the sporting world. If you follow the link to the Examiner.com article, there's a poll asking if readers think people will cheer Donna on, or if they'll boo because they're "not ready" for this. In my opinion, there's nothing to be "ready" for, unless you're a closed-minded, bigoted jerk – and for fuck's sake, this is San Francisco! If a drag performer singing the national anthem at a baseball game is too much for you, something you're "not ready" for…well, tough crap. The rest of us are thrilled, as is Donna, I'm sure, and your narrow-mindedness and prejudice is not going to change that.
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