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Trannyshack is a monthly drag club taking place at DNA Lounge in San Francisco. It was started by drag queen Heklina in 1996 as an offshoot of Klubstitute, and was a weekly fixture at The Stud bar in San Francisco for 12 years, drawing large crowds on a regular basis. The Tuesday night performances at The Stud ended on 12 August 2008, with Trannyshack resuming as a monthly event at DNA Lounge in March 2010.
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Trannyshack history
The Trannyshack stage has hosted many celebrities including Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, RuPaul, Charo, Michelle Visage, Mary Wilson and many of the contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race among others. In the early years of the club, Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters lived in San Francisco and performed frequently at Trannyshack before moving to New York in 1999.
Trannyshack ended as a weekly Tuesday night show on August 12, 2008 with "The Final Tuesday". Heklina has said that she stopped presenting the show after it became so successful that it was being copied by other shows: "I felt like if everyone's trying to copy me, maybe I should try to do something different." The Trannyshack name has become so popular that Heklina has filed six cease-and-desist letters against other clubs using the name.
In January 2015, Trannyshack was renamed "Mother" and now takes place at Oasis, a San Francisco gay club owned by Heklina. The reason for the name change was out of respect for the transgender community, who were critical of the use of the word "tranny" as being offensive.
Miss Trannyshack Pageant
The Miss Trannyshack Pageant is no longer held in a nightclub. In 2004, Trannyshack Founder and Promoter Heklina teamed up with event producer Juan Garcia of Beatbox Events to move the event from the clubs to the Regency Ballroom and take this event to a whole new level. Together with Juan Garcia the help of drag phenomena and co-hostess Juanita More!, they have turned this little contest into a giant spectacle and late-night dance party complete with celebrity judges, live performances, concert-like production and special effects.
Until 2007, which marked the final Miss Trannyshack Pageant, this annual offsite event has been a fierce pageant-style competition for the title, Miss Trannyshack. Candidates for the pageant are recruited from Trannyshack, the popular weekly show at the Stud Bar in San Francisco. Every week a new theme is presented as inspiration for new and returning talent to perform to eager viewers. Guests look forward to a mix of everything from lowbrow trash, “old-school” traditional drag performances, avant-garde and highbrow installations and gritty punk-rock shows in a dance-club setting. Trannyshack favorites are transformed into stars and work towards entering and winning the coveted title, Miss Trannyshack at the annual Trannyshack pageant.
Special Trannyshack events
Trannyshack also holds the annual Trannyshack Reno bus trip. Hosted by Trannyshack veteran Peaches Christ and held over Easter Weekend, participants are encouraged to dress and act as outrageously and/or provocatively as possible and imbibe alcohol heartily over the course of the weekend. During the ride from San Francisco to Reno, the tour bus makes several pit stops in relatively conservative places such as Placerville and Donner Pass, designed partially to get a rise out of small-town locals and unsuspecting travelers, all in real life scenes reminiscent of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The culmination of the event is a special Trannyshack show at a Reno nightclub, followed by Easter Sunday brunch the next day at a local casino.
Trannyshack also holds the annual SS Trannyshack chartered boat cruise on San Francisco Bay, usually held in September, although the event has not been held since 2004; however, it has been announced that the event will be revived for the 2009 Folsom Street Fair.