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Wednesday, 26 November 2008 17:40
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 Two-Spirit Drag King is None of the Above
Jacob Anderson-Minshall
“I’m telling the truth as I saw it—because that’s all I got,” says actor Jennifer Lanier of her autobiographical performance None of the Above—in which the truths aren’t black or white. Which is fitting. Neither is she. The African American/Native American actor also known as Bruce, the drag king identifies as a two-spirited woman. “Which is probably the most accurate way I think that I can describe myself—I really do walk around with both [genders].”
That dual-presentation makes people uncomfortable, Lanier says, because “People feel such a strong need to identify us in some form or another and to come up with a cause…‘Is the reason you’re a lesbian because of your father and the sexual assault thing?’ I’m always like, ‘No. I’ve been a lesbian ever since I was born.’ [People] need a reason. [They] need to see this connection as being direct, black and white.” Yet Lanier points out, “Who I am as a person…is so not black or white—quite literally.”
“I also want people to know,” Lanier says, “that even though…the abuse pieces or the sexual assault pieces that happen in the story and the other pieces too, the racist stuff or the weird gender stuff that goes on—yeah all those pieces happened and yes, they’ve all had a certain effect on me. However, that’s not the end all be all of this human being that I am. And I don’t wear that all the time. I can still walk through the world. I can still laugh. My biggest survival technique has always been to laugh.”
Which is why Lanier contends she likes to “keep a lot of humor involved” in her alter ego Bruce TD King. “The big deal is that Bruce thinks that he’s slick, but he’s not. Not getting the girl is way funnier than getting the girl.”
 Bruce many not be all that slick, but his fan base isn’t limited to the trans women who regularly attend his shows. In fact, when Lanier debuted her drag persona a few years ago at Hawaii’s Wild Women’s Weekend, she’d barely begun to belt out Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark,” when Lanier recalls, “women started screaming [and] running up to the stage!”
“I’d come up with this other name,” Lanier reports now. “I’d crafted some cool drag name,” but in the hubbub, a friend “grabbed the mic and said ‘everybody give a big hand for Bruce!’” The name stuck.
Later, realizing she could use Bruce to spark dialogues about gender, Lanier took the act on the road to universities and colleges where she says, “Professors love it because it’s…not particularly dry and academic. I’ll transform there in front of them.”
After performances, Lanier says, “People come up to ask me if I’m trans. I tell them, ‘No. I’m an actor.’ I’m very clear:…I do drag, which is a performance form. Then there are folks who are trans, which is a life. I know, ultimately, that I’m a woman. At the end of the night, I take my make-up off and put my cock and harness away.”
Still, Lanier admits, “I am two-spirited, so I believe that’s a lot of what [audiences] are seeing. [They]’re seeing that part of me really showing itself and then I heightening that with [acting].
Earlier this year Lanier made history, becoming the first drag king to win the title of Mr. Gay Pride Vancouver (Washington). Fittingly, Lanier’s real-life partner and fellow performer, Dustina Haas, was crowned Ms. Gay Pride Vancouver.
“I can really get behind pride,” remarks Lanier. “That’s something I think is important…for every community to find a way to celebrate. And the fact that this particular festival is this big family friendly thing? I think it completely rocks!”
Lanier won the Mr. Gay Pride competition with formal attire based on the clothing style of Wizard of Oz’s Lollipop Guild; and swimwear inspired by Poseidon. “I’m not really all about getting up in front of people in a tiny little Speedo or something,” Lanier jokes. “That’s so not going to work out for me.”
A classically trained actor Lanier has worked on film, TV and commercials; mostly “just the stuff that you do as an actor…semi-bad films and a few decent ones and lots of disease-of-the-week TV movies,” but for four years Lanier served as a spokesperson for the Christian Children’s Fund replacing Sally Struthers. “It’s kind of an odd thing,” Lanier says, “but it’s something I’m very proud of because they do good work.”
Working with Portland’s youth-focused Theater Brigade, Lanier also directs student-actors, who receive professional theater training and then go on tour, bringing theater to area schools at no cost.
“The performances are in story theater style,” she says. “Which is precisely the way I like to work, it’s exactly the form I like to be in. So it’s just great getting to teach younger folks that style of working.”
Just beginning to make her mark in the Portland/Vancouver theater scene, Lanier claims it’s an exciting time and she looks forward to “doing more on the stages here.” While a pet project, doing a “completely gender bent version of Les Liaison Dangerouse,”—aka The Dangerous Liaison—may have to wait for 2010; Lanier will be performing None of the Above this spring at Portland’s Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (IFCCArts.org).
In the meantime, Bruce will remain a central part of Vancouver’s North Bank Club’s bi-weekly, queer variety show, Lipz Cabaret. And, as Mr. Vancouver Gay Pride, Lanier will co- host Queers in Toyland Vancouver Gay Pride’s holiday party, which promises a roster of performers, a visit by Santa Claus, and baked goods for sale to raise money for next year’s Pride celebration.
Trans author Jacob Anderson-Minshall co-hosts the monthly Gender Blender radio show on Portland’s KBOO fm that streams live on kboo.fm. Blind Faith, the latest in the Blind Eye mystery series he writes with his wife, is due out in December.
© Jacob Anderson-Minshall 2008
Jacob Anderson-Minshall co-hosts Gender Blender on Portland, Oregon's KBOO 90.7 (streaming live at kbooo.fm). Download the November 18th episode on gender-based violence at kboo.fm. Jacob also writes the syndicated column TransNation, co-hosts Portland's QLiterati!, freelances with Just Out & KBOO radio news and co-authors the Blind Eye Mystery series. Blind Curves and Blind Leap are available through boldstrokesbooks.com and bookstores nationwide. Discover more at anderson-minshall.com or myspace.com/blindeyemysteries.
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