Juanita More, stylized as Juanita MORE!, is an American drag artist and activist. She is best known for her work in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she has been an active drag queen since 1992. She has raised over $1 million dollars for charities in the area. She is the subject of at least five murals in San Francisco, and has been the subject of two retrospectives of her fashion and style. She is also a political activist.
Biography More was born in Fremont, California and raised in Hayward, California with the first name Michael to parents who were immigrant farmworkers from Coahuila and had a large vinyl collection. During her childhood, she learned how to cook from her grandmother and aunts. She has stated that from a young age she would rather be cooking in the kitchen than playing outside. She also frequently created art projects and put on shows as a child. At 18, she came out to her mother.
In 1983, she began volunteering to do hospice work for AIDS patients in San Francisco. In 1987, she moved to New York City, where she created her own catering company. There, she met Glamamore, also known as Mr. David, a drag queen who she soon became close to. Glamamore went on to come to San Francisco with her in 1991, and put her in drag for the first time on Halloween 1992. Glamamore would subsequently design all of More's outfits.
By 1993, she was regularly performing as a drag queen. She has stated that much of her early confidence came from being drunk. She has since become a "drag queen superstar" in San Francisco. She has her own branded coffee, partnered with Ritual Coffee Roasters. She also continues to cook for her events.
As of 2024, she had celebrated her 33rd birthday every year for 24 years. Since 2012, she has celebrated it with a naked birthday party. She also organizes a major pride party in the city every year, which was rated as a must-see. All of her events fundraise for various LGBTQ+-focused charities, such as the Transgender Law Center. As of 2024, she had fundraised over a million dollars. In 2026, she stated she'd raised more than $1.5 million.
She is also a political activist who creates her own election guide, called the Queer Agenda Voting Guide. She also fundraises and campaigns for LGBTQ+ candidates. For example, in 2018 she campaigned for Mark Leno and Rafael Mandelman. In 2020, she founded the People's March and Rally in support of LGBTQ+ people and people of color. That year, it replaced her pride party, though in subsequent years she held both. She has vocally advocated against Donald Trump.
She was named a Saint by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in 2006. She was also named Empress of the Imperial Court System of San Francisco, the largest of the drag-focused Imperial Court Systems. She was the subject of a 2016 retrospective of her fashion and style, "Mr. David for Juanita More! 24 Years of More" at the De Young Museum, and a 2022 retrospective titled "Juanita: 30 Years Of MORE!" by the San Francisco Arts Commission. Her hat collection was shown by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2026.
As of 2019, San Francisco had at least four murals of her. A further mural of her with Glamamore was painted in 2022. Another mural of her was painted in 2023, but defaced less than a month later.
Personal life In 1994, More was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin lymphoma, which recurred multiple times. She has a French Bulldog named Jackson.
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