海湾地区的粉丝“RuPaul拖种族”有很多to feel good about following the season 14 finale.

Although San Francisco’sLady Camdendid not win the crown after her impressive run on the hit VH1 series, she gotcloser to itthan any other local queen in the show’s history. Let’s hope that her second-place finish means the region’s alleged “Drag Race” curse is officially over, and that we’ll see more deserving local talent on the series moving forward.

Based on how Camden’s performance registered with audiences, I’m optimistic.

Prior to this season, only two other San Francisco performers had been cast on the show in more than a decade.Honey Mahoganywas eliminated after four episodes in season five and used the exposure as a launching pad into politics and activism, co-founding San Francisco’s Transgender Cultural District and serving as the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee chair.Rock M. Sakuralasted two episodes in season 12 and moved to Los Angeles, where she continues to perform.

The show’s low representation of San Francisco talent felt to some community members like an intentional slight of a city known for being on the cutting edge of the art form. A few even speculated that creator RuPaul had a drag grudge against the region.

“I’ve heard Ru just doesn’t like San Francisco,” Oaklash drag festival founder Mama Celeste told The Chronicle in a2019 interview. “When Ru comes here, she goes to the Church of 8 Wheels, not the drag scene.”

That year, Sister Roma of the local drag group the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence said that she was “no longer surprised when we don’t see San Francisco represented on the show. Not surprised, but still disappointed.”

Representatives from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Were Bay Area performers not polished enough for the international franchise, their drag too “out there” for TV? Although 31-year-old Lady Camden is originally from London and was living in Sacramento during the filming of season 14, she’s a worthy representative of San Francisco’s drag scene as a performer who is not afraid to subvert conventions of the art on her own terms.

Out of all the season 14 queens, Camden had one of the strongest senses of her own physicality. Having danced as Rex Wheeler with both Sacramento Ballet and Smuin Ballet in San Francisco, it’s not surprising that she used her abilities to express herself through her body to gratifying results.

In perhaps the most memorable reveal in the show’s history, she strutted down the runway in a white gown and disco wig before taking a very realistic-looking fall onto her face. After an anxious pause, she stood, transformed into a chap-wearing, mustached Freddie Mercury. As Camden assumed the macho swagger of this new drag character, the judges squealed. It was a very San Francisco moment of gender theory: In her transformation, she reminded us that masculinity is as much of a social construct ripe for drag as femininity.

.@ladycamdenreally said “oh no I hope I don’t fall”#DragRacepic.twitter.com/yipXP6LLIM

— RuPaul's Drag Race (@RuPaulsDragRace)February 19, 2022

As the city that helped propel the genderf— drag aesthetic into queer culture — starting with the glitter beardedCockettesof the 1970s, the T-Shack crowd at the turn of the millennium and the new wave of drag artists who flaunt chest hair while embracing nonbinary presentation — local viewers couldn’t help but feel the San Francisco performance ethos in the stunt.

As Camden herself admitted ina recent interviewwith The Chronicle, “One thing that I have taken from S.F. drag is just to not really give two f—s about the gender categories.”

On a more visceral level, Camden’s fall and reveal was also a great fake-out gag that felt informed by Bay Area drag’s love of stunts, pratfalls and narrative in a routine. Likewise, her solo lip sync during the season 14 finale to Queen’s “I Fell Down” was a witty callback to her Freddie Mercury moment, with an added touch of deconstruction. As Camden spun between backup dancers, her tutu and bodice unraveled, revealing her in a glittering bodysuit. Completing the gesture, her beehive wig also unwound, allowing her to whip her fire-engine red hair with abandon.

“Knowing Camden and seeing her do so well personally makes me feel like being on the show is an attainable thing,” said San Francisco drag queenSnaxxfollowing the season. “I had been thinking about it anyway. They’ve clearly grown so much and been better about gender inclusivity with the number of trans women on the show this season. And I’m going to be pissed if a different cis female queen gets on the show before me!

“我认为我们已经突破(“拖种族”的坏蛋se.)” Snaxx continued. “I think we have an argument now to be taken seriously, and I hope it emboldens more performers from our scene to feel they deserve to be on the show as well.”

No singular artist can ever represent the wide diversity of performance styles, backgrounds and experiences of San Francisco drag. What Lady Camden did was embody a few of the qualities that make the scene exciting and influential on the larger stage.

Following the finale, Camden posted a music video of the song “San Francisco” onInstagramtagging a number of local drag artists.

“A love letter to my favorite city in the world,” read the video’s description. “I’m proud of my journey and to be representing Sacramento and the UK, two places that have totally shaped who I am today. But San Francisco is the place I truly found myself. I’m thrilled to tour the world but man I can not wait to come home.”

Let’s hope the next Bay Area queen to compete on the series feels the same way.

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