Rumi Missabu was born in Hollywood, took a bus to San Francisco, made a wrong turn, got lost, and was too stubborn to ask for directions. The first place he lived after he ran away was in a water tower with a lesbian poet. 

Rumi was an original member of the late 1960s San Francisco hippie performance troupe, the Cockettes. The Cockettes were high-action, out-front, out-of-the-closet entertainers, and the satiric cutting edge of the first wave of the Gay Liberation. Rumi left the Cockettes after a year and a half, traveled to Canada, moved to New York, and then hitchhiked home to San Francisco. For 35 years, he lived without a government ID, work record, and social security number. His only form of identification was an expired San Francisco library card that said “Rumi Missabu.” Everything had to be done on his own terms. Cue the mystery and rumors. People thought he was in the gutter and then forgot he existed. His legacy was on the verge of being erased by his transient, underground life. 

Episode 4 of Season 2 of The QueerCore Podcast is about how a crazy Cockette wasn’t going to play by any rules, even if that meant he was arrested. 

Side note: You can visit lgbtqhp.org/store to purchase our new book on Rumi. It's whacky and wonderful, with shocking twists and turns. Can you imagine living completely underground? Only in San Francisco can an actor pull off their greatest performance—surviving without a trace.