San Francisco Drag Legend Heklina Dies In London

April 3, 2023 LGBT Culture, LGBT News

San Francisco’s NBC affiliate reports:

Longtime San Francisco drag performer Heklina has reportedly died in London, according to a social media post from fellow SF drag mainstay, Peaches Christ (aka Joshua Grannell). Heklina and Grannell were apparently in London together starring in “Mommie Queerest,” which is a described as a “Wild drag parody” of the 1981 film, “Mommie Dearest.”

“This morning, in London, England I went to collect my dear friend Heklina, who is costarring with me in a Mommie Queerest show here, and found her dead,” wrote Grannell, posting from the Peaches Christ Facebook page. “I do not know her cause of death yet. I know this is shocking news and I am beyond stunned.”

The SFist reports:

Heklina, a.k.a. Stefan Grygelko, came to San Francisco in the early 1990s, first working as a barback and bartender at The Stud in SoMa. It was from there and The EndUp that Heklina would help launch multiple club nights, including Trannyshack, which would become an institution lasting over a decade with weekly performances on Tuesdays at midnight.

The club launched the drag careers of many local stars, and played host to the likes of Lady Gaga (in 2008), Charro, and Ana Matronic. Heklina took Trannyshack to bigger venues and made it monthly, and ultimately changed the name of the club in 2014 to Mother, amid greater sensitivity in the broader queer community over the once-tongue-in-cheek name.

The San Francisco Standard reports:



While San Francisco has produced its fair share of nationally recognized drag icons over the decades, perhaps no one was as closely affiliated with the city’s underground queer nightlife for as long. Long before drag achieved anything like its current mainstream popularity, the acid-tongued and self-deprecating Heklina dominated San Francisco’s alternative zeitgeist.

Heklina’s star rose enough that she worked with luminaries like Margaret Cho and Go-Go’s musician Jane Wiedlin. Among many other productions over the years, Heklina was perhaps most widely known to contemporary San Francisco audiences as Dorothy Zbornak in annual holiday re-creations of The Golden Girls.

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