José Julio Sarria (December 13, 1922 – August 19, 2013), also known as The Grand Mere, Absolute Empress I de San Francisco, and the Widow Norton, was an American political activist from San Francisco, California, who in 1961 became the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States. He is also remembered for performing as a drag queen at the Black Cat Bar and as the founder of the Imperial Court System. Family history José Sarria was born in San Francisco, California, to Maria Dolores Maldonado and Julio Sarria. His family was of Spanish and Colombian origin. His mother Maria was born in Bogotá to an upper class and politically active family. During the events of the Thousand Days War and following her mother's death, Maria sought out the protection of her mother's friend, General Rafael Uribe Uribe, to escape Colombia. The general located Maria's surviving uncle, who took her to the American consulate. There she was made a ward of the United States and relocated to Panama. "My mother got to Panama with directions to the home of a family called Kopp. He was the chairman of the big German beer company there", said Sarria. "She went to work for the Kopps. ... My mother was the upstairs maid and took care of the children." In 1919, she relocated to Guatemala City but remained there for just six months and, in 1920, sailed to San Francisco. As Sarria reported it, "Now on the boat is where my mother met my father, Julio Sarria. He came from a large and very wealthy family, very well known. ... His grandparents came from Spain." Maria initially worked for the woman who sponsored her passage to the United States and then took a job as a maid with a family named Jost. Julio was the maitre d' at the Palace Hotel. Julio courted Maria until she realized she was pregnant. Their son José was born on December 12. His birth certificate reads 1923 but Sarria believed he was born in 1922. Julio and Maria never married. Early life Sarria's mother continued to work for the Jost family, but it became increasingly difficult for her to fulfill her job responsibilities and care for an infant. Maria made arrangements for him to be raised by another couple, Jesserina and Charles Millen. Jesserina had recently lost her youngest child to diphtheria and suffered