[This story appears in the current January/February 2019 issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.]
From January 23 to 27, the mountain slopes of Stowe, Vermont will once again be host to Winter Rendezvous, the hugely popular gay ski week that always includes a fun-filled array of events to heat up the icy air. For details, check out winterrendezvous.com.
This year, DJ dance parties, drag bingo and a live show from legendary icon Lady Bunny are all on the agenda.
Big-haired Lady Bunny is a sequined symbol of NYC nightlife’s drag heritage, forever queen of the Club Kids, and still the same kind of radical rabble-rouser that queer culture can’t lose. She’s not shy about skewering political bullshit artists and political correctness, even when it riles her own LGBTQ base. The Wigstock found is a one-person party, but not one to simply spout the party line.
In an interview with Boston Spirit, she spilled the tea on Craigslist hookups, what the Democrats do wrong and her very favorite Vermonter. Here’s a hint: Bernie/Bunny 2020.
Boston Spirit: So, will we see you on the slopes? Do you ski?
Lady Bunny: I never ski, unless it’s on Craigslist.
Spirit: Ha! With the personals gone, you won’t be finding anyone to party with there, anymore.
Bunny: When I was on Craigslist, I was really on Craigslist. I’d be finishing up with one guy and the next would be ringing the doorbell. I never responded to ads, I only put mine out there. They would be under T4M, transvestite for man. It led to a regular thing with many guys. When guys are thinking with their penis, they’re not really that together. If you’re meeting one of those straight-identified transvestite chasers, you are their forbidden fantasy world. Their family or girlfriend can never see you. You’re like, this gold mine they’ve hidden away.
Spirit: Are you excited to go to Vermont? It’s home to your favorite person: Bernie Sanders!
Bunny: [Laughs] I certainly wouldn’t mind meeting him! Hey, he started a movement. Even though people are saying we need someone young. First off, we don’t need to continue swapping between the first black president and the first female president if they are peddling such stale ideas that they lose to Trump. A lot of people vote based on how presidential the candidate is, the other crew votes based on who is the candidate they’d like to have a beer with. Well, I’d like to have a beer with Grace Jones, but I don’t want her near the nuke button. We are so dumb. Don’t assume just because they’re black or female that they’re going to be working on behalf of most of us.
Spirit: What’s the response like when you criticize Obama or Hillary in front of LGBTQ audiences?
Bunny: I do work in a few things about Trump, but people aren’t ready to hear about the failings of the Democrats that delivered Trump to us. This might ruffle feathers with Boston readers, but when it comes to quote-unquote progressive leaders like Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker or Kamala Harris—why is it that they have voted repeatedly for Trump’s military budget? If you spend all this time telling me he’s a baby, he’s a monster, he’s a mad man, why would you arm him to the teeth? I guess he’s really not that scary.
Spirit: One thing you’re not is, politically correct.
Bunny: Well honey, I got my start performing for gay audiences or mixed nightclub audiences who were watching a show at one or two in the morning, and they were bombed, and I was bombed, and the more shocking it was the better. So that is my humor. And when the politically correct types get their politics together, we’ve got two parties that both want to bomb the world to smithereens, so you can imagine how awful it is to be called the wrong gender. Now they’re saying “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” should be rejected because it was dealing with bullying. What? That song is about a reindeer who was bullied, overcame it and saved the day. I identified with that story, and that gay-looking kid who wanted to be a dentist on the Island of Misfit Toys. If you’re such a crybaby that you can’t watch something about bullying with a positive outcome, you better be home-schooled. You’re not ready to take on the world.
Spirit: Do you think queens have lost their edge in a post “Drag Race” world?
Bunny: They’re looking for any endorsement deal. Valentina is in the “Rent” TV remake. Willam and Shangela are in “A Star Is Born.” They don’t want to do too many things that are going to block them from getting bigger gigs. Meanwhile, I did my show “Trans-Jester” for three years and had a song about Caitlyn Jenner. I’m not down with her. Trans people can be anything, and that includes Republican and stupid. But you know, at first I’d say her name and there’d be applause; by the end of the three years, the crowd would boo and hiss. So.
