TransTainment! Trans in Art and Entertainment
Dylan Mulvaney
As we mentioned in our news column Dylan Mulvaney was recognized for her creative contributions to social media with the 2023 Streamy Award on Sunday, August 27. The category was actually “Breakout Creator”. After accepting the award Mulvaney said as she departed the stage, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’m gonna go have a beer!” Could that desire for a mug of suds have anything to do with the Bud Light controversy? Your guess is as good as ours. Read more on the subject on the Yahoo entertainment page.
Trans actor Trace Lysette continues to win praise for her performance in Monica. Her co-star from that film, veteran actor Patricia Clarkson, says that it’s time for Lysette to be the love interest in a film. She was quoted in Variety thusly, “It’s time for her to be the love interest of these stars. It’s where she belongs.” Learn more about Lysette and Monica from Yahoo.
Sidonia Dudval’s portrait.
Artist Joseph Alexander has created a portrait series titled The Grand Drag Legacy of Southeastern Minnesota. Five of the portraits are on display at the Historic Chateau Theatre in Rochester, Minnesota. The portraits honor pioneers of the region’s modern drag scene. The queens captured on canvas by Alexander come from a variety of genres, from elegant performers like Sidonia Dudval and Anita Tiara to the campy Gosh Alice Johns, along with the flashy Allota Shots and Jayda Cline. Each has performed in the area for years and has played a part in expanding drag in Rochester. Check the article in the Star Tribune for more info on the series.
Woman Of. . ., is a Venice Film Festival competition entry written and directed by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert. It is a trans drama set in Poland during its transformation from communism to capitalism. Woman Of. . . stars Malgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik as Aniela Wesoly, who lived more than half of her adult life in a provincial Polish town as a man. The film spans 45 years of the life of Aniela as she aspires to find personal liberty as a trans woman and faces hardships in marriage and parenthood, strained family relations and complicated attitudes in her environment. The director says the film stars many people who are transgender, playing roles of both trans and cis characters. Learn more from Variety.
Aurora Gayheart
Have you always associated rodeos with cowboys, bull riding and horses and such? But did you know there’s such a thing as the gay rodeo? And there is a Miss New Mexico Gay Rodeo Association 2023? It’s true! She is Aurora Gayheart, otherwise known as Michael Andrew Martinez, and it’s her job to use her yearlong reign to advance the Western lifestyle among the LGBTQ+ community and fundraise for a local nonprofit that serves homeless LGBTQ+ youth — all while maintaining the style and panache you would expect from a rodeo drag queen. The gay rodeo has been a tradition going back fifty years.There are local gay rodeo associations throughout the West and there’s even an International Gay Rodeo Association. Learn about it all from an article in the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Taylor Swift’s 2023 Eras tour did not stop in the Philippines but as a consolation prize they have Taylor Swift impersonator Taylor Sheesh. Filipino Swifties who can’t experience the real thing have embraced Sheesh at performances in cities around the country. She performs all of Taylor Swift’s hits in shopping malls, recreating the set list Swift is doing on her Eras tour. One of Taylor Sheesh’s shows was seen by 10,000 Swifties in Manila. When asked about how the success of Taylor Sheesh feels she said, “It’s still not processing in my brain. I’m totally overwhelmed and grateful to the fans. It feels weird, even when I’m not dressed as Taylor Sheesh, like I’m just walking in the streets as myself. People are like, “Oh my God!” I’m happy just my talent is recognized.” Read the interview on the Vulture website.
Taylor Sheesh
Celebration Theatre & Los Angeles LGBT Center present the Los Angeles Premiere of the award-winning The Real Black Swann: Confessions of America’s First Black Drag Queen.
Written and Performed by Les Kurkendaal-Barrett. The show premiers on Saturday, September 9 at 8pm (press opening) and performances run through Sunday, September 24 at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, 1125 N. McCadden Place in Los Angeles. The play tells the story of William Dorsey Swann, aka “The Queen.” Surviving antebellum enslavement, Swann rises from the ashes of racial oppression to become the first “Queen of Drag” and queer activist on record. More information about the show can be found on Broadway World.
Category: Transgender Fun & Entertainment
About the Author (Author Profile)
Angela Gardner is a founding member of The Renaissance Transgender Assoc., Inc., former editor of its newsletter and magazine, Transgender Community News. She was the Diva of Dish for TGF in the late 1990s and Editor of LadyLike magazine until its untimely demise. She has appeared in film and television shows portraying TG characters, as well as representing Renaissance on numerous talk shows.Subscribe
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