The Empress Is a Man: Stories from the Life of José Sarria

by Michael R. Gorman

You may be familiar with the tremendous life achievements of José Sarria, an integral player in the gay rights movement, but never before have you heard the intimate details of his incredible life as they are portrayed here. In The Empress Is a Stories from the Life of José Sarria (winner of the Lammy Award in the transgender category), Michael Gorman exposes Sarria’s life in a frank manner and with a unique storytelling ability that simultaneously causes amusement and sadness. Sarria’s amazing life story tells of his perserverance to advance the cause of equality for gay citizens. At a time when gays were arrested, institutionalized, and castrated, Sarria did not try to hide his beliefs and convictions. Sarria was ahead of his time, becoming a significant figure in gay history and culture. You’ll find The Empress Is a Man fascinating as you read about the life of this truly courageous, outrageous, and remarkable man. Some of Sarria’s experiences and achievements you’ll read about

Genres: LGBT, Biography, Nonfiction, History

304 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 1998

Reviews

[Jake Harvey]

This book is a gift of queer herstory and tells the story, too unfamiliar in our society, of an iconic queer ancestor who paved the way for us before (and after) the Stonewall Riots. The story is told primarily in the oral tradition — for this reason, it can sometimes feel disconnected or wandering. That is part of the point — and some of the quotes from the central figure, José Sarria, are hilarious. We are lucky to have access to this history, and to have the legacy of the Empress José.

[Graeson Von Stein]

I’m very proud to have been a friend of The Widow Norton. I was The Celtic Hope Emperor of all Iowa. I’m in the book.
Jose was one of the most wonderful and inspiring person. We had meals together and I would always take him to dinner when I visited San Francisco.

[Michael Howley]

I was really hopeful for this book, which was recommended to me by none other than San Francisco's one and only Emperor Norton impersonator. It started out very promising, too. I would read an entire book about Jose Sarria's mother. But as it went on, I found myself too distracted by the writing and apparent lack of editorial oversight.

Is this a biography or a chronicle of the author's time with the subject? Either go all the way, or leave out the personal parentheticals and long lead-ins to each vignette! Since most of the text was either personal comments from the author or seemingly direct longform quotes from Jose Sarria, there also wasn't much apparent effort to verify some of the history. I'm not calling The Empress a liar, and I'm here for entertainment, but when simple facts like "the Battle of the Bulge was not a US offensive" go unchecked, I'm not optimistic about the rest of the material.

All of that might have been okay if I were still entertained and informed by the rest of the book, but I felt I didn't even get what I came for - a personal history of how Jose Sarria decided to take on the mantle of the Widow Norton, and how and why he founded the Imperial Court System. By the tie the book gets to that part of Jose's life, it jumps straight into a couple latter-day moments from a few Court events and then runs out of pages.

[Isai Soto]

Writing style kind of flattens the grandiosity of this person and the surrounding history. A lot of the stories save themselves from the “What’s a drag queeeeen?? “ writing that often comes off as a freshman essay for a cultural literacy class