SFGate.com – Sarah Lefton
Heather Gold has long joked that it’s easier to come out as gay than Jewish in this town. Last night, your humble F2F correspondent hung out with the doubly out people of Congregation Sha’ar Zahav at the 30th birthday bash for their queer little shteibl in the Mission, sometimes known as the Mishkan Dolores. (Sha’ar zahav means “golden gate” in Hebrew, by the way.) Amidst colorful decorations and lights; sequins, taffeta and bowties; decadent chocolate truffles (aye ay aye); and a performance by Jill Sobule, there was – natch – an Israeli troupe of drag queens.
“Congratulations, Sha’ar Zahav, you’re thirty!” queen Galina said, to some wincing from her sidekick (not a shaven beard hair over twenty-three.) “Why have we come all the way from Israel to do this show? Because we’re Holy Wigs, the drag show from Jerusalem!”
(It’s kind of a BIG DEAL to be a drag queen in the holy city, and this troupe risks condemnation from, well, pretty much everybody, performing their weekly shtick at Jerusalem’s only gay bar, Shushan, just a half mile from the Western Wall and Al Aksa Mosque.)