SHARYN JACKSON
If you run into Sharyn Jackson wearing a salt-and-pepper wig and a boxy pantsuit, don’t be alarmed. She’s just channeling the late, great Bea Arthur as the co-founder of the “We Love the Golden Girls” annual tribute party at the Stonewall Inn, now in its fourth year. “The Golden Girls…portrayed female sex appeal in a way no other show ever did. Those four women were icons during my childhood; they taught me what I had to look forward to. And as someone who identifies most with Dorothy/Bea Arthur, Golden Girls showed me that you could be awkward, sarcastic and exceptionally tall, and still have people fawning over you for a date,” Jackson laughs. “Where else could I have learned the difference between ‘Lebanese’ and ‘lesbian’?” Out of Miami Beach drag, Jackson attends Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she concentrates on magazine writing, and works as an associate editor at the Village Voice. –KL
