Photo by Gareth Gooch
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is a phrase from the 1897 editorial “Is There a Santa Claus?” which reminds us that “love and generosity and devotion exist.” For us, entertainer and LGBT activist Donna Sachet is such a loving force in San Francisco. With genuine warmth, intelligence, style and wit, this generous dream-like diva in red has brightened many of our foggy days, and has done more for local charities than anyone else we can think of now. It is with great pleasure that we celebrate Sachet and the 25th anniversary of “Songs of the Season” in this special issue of the San Francisco Bay Times.
Born as Kirk Reeves in South Carolina, Sachet attended Vanderbilt University before working in fashion in New York and then moving to San Francisco. She has not looked back since. Sachet reigned as Miss Gay San Francisco in 1992 and as the thirtieth elected Empress of San Francisco in 1995–96. In 2000, she received the Alice B. Toklas Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club Community Service Award and, well, if we kept listing her numerous deserved honors, we would soon run out of space!
In terms of historic firsts, Sachet was the first known drag personality to address the Commonwealth Club of California and to sing the National Anthem for a major league sports team. Accolades have come her way from numerous San Francisco mayors, the City Board of Supervisors and the State Legislature. She co-chaired the SF GLAAD Media Awards for many years and has served on the Board of Directors of PRC, the Imperial Council, the SF LGBT Community Center, and the State Board of Equality California—to name just a few.
We cannot imagine June Pride without Sachet, given that she has co-anchored the live television coverage of the San Francisco Pride Parade for many years. Speaking of Pride, her and Gary Virginia’s annual Pride Brunch is one of the season’s most anticipated events. It honors the Grand Marshals of the parade and benefits PRC.
Come to think of it, much of our annual calendar is based on Sachet time. We could even say weekly calendar, given her always delightful Sunday’s a Drag Brunch events at the Starlight Room, featuring other talented performers. The documentary Sachet, about her life (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2IM_yH3ibI), begins as one Sunday’s a Drag show does, with these lyrics from Gypsy: “Let me entertain you. Let me make you smile.” The words might as well have originated with Sachet. If we open our hearts to the love that she continues to pour out, our lives will be the better for it.
As the timeless holiday editorial from well over a century ago shares: “Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! … [T]here is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernatural beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.”
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