Jewels of Long Beach

For those within the LGBT community, Jewels is a staple — and not just within the nightlife scene, but within their community as a whole. Her drag persona has her witty, sarcastic hand in everything that has to do with the gay Long Beach scene (including a platter of deep-fried mac’n’cheese balls from Hamburger Mary’s, of which she has little shame in admitting) – be it a random night at the Falcon or hosting an event at Pride like this year’s Pink Party. This might not immediately seem impressive but for those who have been here before there was Jewels, they recall the times when Long Beach’s night scene for the gay crowd was, despite the community being rather large, disparate and lacking vibrancy.

After taking on all the work she could – and do not question her as anything but a workin’ girl (not that kind of working girl though she has respect for anyone who makes a dollar on their own) – including performances when she could, appearances when she could, MCing when she could — hell, handing out Chiclets for all she cared, just as long as she got her name out there.

And that is exactly what happened: Jewels was suddenly everywhere – and she brought everyone with her. The younger crowd began exploding in bars thanks to her renovation of nights, floods of people began attending her Sunday Brunchettes show at Mary’s thanks to her pull of top-notch drag performers (including drag kings), and anyone with an event that was LGBT-oriented wanted her on mic.

So cheers to the woman in heels that only a man could fill.