{"id":444457,"date":"2026-08-26T22:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/444457\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T22:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T22:08:13","slug":"the-castro-sings-goodbye-to-queer-icon-dolly-parton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/444457\/","title":{"rendered":"The Castro Sings Goodbye to Queer Icon Dolly Parton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only hours after one of country music\u2019s biggest stars passed away, hundreds gathered in San Francisco\u2019s Castro District to sing and celebrate Parton\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

Aug 26, 2026<\/p>\n

Updated 2:41 pm PT<\/p>\n

Carlos Cabrera-Lomel\u00ed<\/a>Beth LaBerge<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

The Castro Theatre marquee reads, \u201cWe Will Always Love You Dolly Parton,\u201d in San Francisco on Aug. 25, 2026.\u00a0(Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Only hours after Dolly Parton<\/a>, one of country music\u2019s biggest stars, passed away on Tuesday, hundreds gathered in San Francisco\u2019s Castro District to celebrate the musician\u2019s life with a solemn rendition of one of her most enduring hits: \u201cI Will Always Love You.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel Stassi, a San Francisco resident by way of North Carolina, joined in the singalong. Stassi grew up listening to Parton\u2019s music and travelling to Dollywood, the singer\u2019s theme park in Tennessee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s basically the patron saint of the Appalachian mountains,\u201d she said, wearing a Dollywood sweater.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been over a decade since she moved to California. When she feels homesick, she\u2019ll play Parton\u2019s music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Drag performer Dirty Carol leads a singalong during a vigil honoring Dolly Parton in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco on Aug. 25, 2026, following news of the country music icon\u2019s death earlier that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has been nothing but pure happiness, joy, and love in our lives,\u201d Stassi said. \u201cSeeing her gone definitely hurts the soul, but I know she\u2019s in a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among San Francisco\u2019s LGBTQ+ community, Parton is a saint \u2014 literally. She was honored<\/a> as one by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the city\u2019s drag order of nuns, who recognized her on Tuesday as \u201cSaint Authenticity the Utmost, Exemplary Artist, Humble Humanitarian, and Patron Saint of Relentless Glamor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her songs \u2014 along with all their remixes \u2014 play weekend after weekend all over Castro\u2019s nightclubs. One of them, Beaux, has already confirmed a drag show tribute<\/a> for this Friday.<\/p>\n

Like other local queer icons, including Heklina<\/a>, Gilbert Baker<\/a> and, of course, Harvey Milk, Parton was honored in San Francisco with a community-led memorial after her passing at age 80 in Nashville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dixie De La Tour holds a candle during a vigil honoring Dolly Parton in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco on Aug. 25, 2026, after news of her death earlier that day.<\/p>\n

\"\"Drag performer Dirty Carol leads a singalong during a vigil honoring Dolly Parton in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco on Aug. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"Larry Joe Bridwell (center) joins a vigil honoring Dolly Parton in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco on Aug. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

The vigil was quickly organized on social media by drag personality Dirty Carol, who told KQED that she was alone when she found out the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGrief is something that needs to be shared. It needs to be communal,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we have memorial services. But to me, this is even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some showed up after seeing Carol\u2019s post. Others were on their way back home and stopped once they heard the music blasting from the speaker Carol wheeled over.<\/p>\n

Joe Bridwell brought flowers to the vigil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a little pink and a little tacky just like her, so I think they\u2019re perfect,\u201d he said with a sad smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI threw on the fastest thing I could, which was rainbow and queer,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the first wig that I could do. But nobody can rock a wig like Dolly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her hands, she carried a candle with Parton\u2019s face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that I love most is she never changed herself for Hollywood,\u201d she said. \u201cShe always had a raunchy sense of humor.\u201cShe always just felt like a real person \u2014 who happened to look like a cartoon character.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Castro Theatre marquee reads, \u201cWe Will Always Love You Dolly Parton,\u201d in San Francisco on Aug. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

Jokes aside, she said she feels the same loss now as when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020<\/a> \u2014 \u201csomebody with a very loud voice who would speak up against all the inhumanity that\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once the singing wrapped up, Dirty Carol turned off her speaker. But Parton\u2019s legacy is forever, she said: \u201cWe have to live by her example.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Carol was growing up in the \u201970s and \u201980s, she said there weren\u2019t many public figures publicly supporting the queer community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was one of the few who did,\u201d she said. \u201cDolly represents love \u2014 unconditional love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only hours after one of country music\u2019s biggest stars passed away, hundreds gathered in San Francisco\u2019s Castro District…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-444457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}