I thought that this item from Tuesday's Guardian in the UK might be an interesting read.
Justin Bond: 'I think everybody's trans'
Justin Bond hit the big time as the raging cabaret legend Kiki DuRane. Now, finds Hermione Hoby, the transgender singer has come up with a whole new identity
It's the hottest day of the year, but up in Justin Vivian Bond's dim, artfully cluttered New York loft, the cabaret singer is elegantly dressed from head to toe in black and smiling serenely. This is disarming – not least because such tranquillity is at odds with Bond's most famous creation. From 1990, Bond performed as Kiki DuRane, a raging old lounge singer, pendulous of bosom, big of hair and perennially wasted. Kiki sang and ranted, accompanied by her gay pianist Herb (AKA Kenny Mellman). Kiki and Herb became a cabaret phenomenon, touring worldwide.
Now, though, Kiki is dead – or at least, "in a nursing home in New Jersey". With her demise, Bond has flourished. There's a new album, Dendrophile; a forthcoming memoir, Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels; and a current run of London dates. But there's also a new pronoun. Bond is transgender and has adopted Vivian as a middle name and the pronoun "v". This is a means of rejecting the gender binary. Bond's website sets it all out: "If I see or hear the words he or she, her or him, hers or his, in reference to me, I will take it either as a personal insult, a weak mind (easily forgivable), or (worst-case scenario) sloppy journalism."
Perched on v's fuschia paisley-pattern bed, beneath gold-framed portraits of Joan Didion and Jean Genet, Bond says: "I tried to choose something that was as simple as possible. It's creating a space for people like me to have language work for who we are." Now 48, Bond explains that the move was prompted by getting older, adding with a guffaw: "I'd rather be in a concentration camp full of trannies than a nursing home full of old men!"
V recently began oestrogen therapy. "It feels great. I like the way my body looks. Emotionally, it's evened me out." However, there are still times when, says v, "I get my fangs out." This happened only the other day: "I went to buy a bra and the woman in the store was being really transphobic, so I had to get 'hyper-articulate'."
Is transphobia now more of a problem than homophobia? "I don't think so because both are rooted in misogyny. As long as there's misogyny, there's going to be transphobia and homophobia. Not too long ago, I was out walking and someone called me 'faggot' on one block and 'dyke' on the other. It tickled me, even though it was horrible. I think everybody's trans."
Bond was adored as Kiki, but it was through the 2006 film Shortbus, in which v's character presided over a sexually diverse salon in Brooklyn, that v began to forge a public identity as "Justin Bond". Do you miss Kiki? "Nahhh," Bond grins, but the fond memories flow. "We would eat mushrooms and during the show they'd kick in. I would get into a real state, which was great, because I got deep into that character. I think there was a need for someone to rage the way Kiki did." The character "came out of my own trauma regarding Aids and so many people dying."
Having now left that creation behind, Bond has had a prolific few years. "Writing songs became a tool for me to get in touch with my own voice. Which is also part of Dendrophile – being in touch not only with the eroticism of nature, but also the eroticism of your own nature." The sultry opener, American Wedding, begins: "In America, I place my ring on your cock where it belongs."
The memoir covers the years four to 16. "Those were traumatic," v says. "I was heavily policed gender-wise. Being a feminine child, I had people feel like they had the right to correct me. And being a sexual child, I was called gay before I even knew what gay was."
In 1985, v left Adelphi University, in New York state, with a degree in acting. "The more I auditioned, the less acting appealed. I thought acting would get me out of myself, but it didn't. What I really wanted was to get into myself."
After we speak, I watch Bond play Joe's Pub, a Manhattan cabaret bar. Wearing a feathered fascinator and matching gown, v is commanding and hilarious, singing in a deliciously raddled voice. If anyone has succeeded in "getting into themself", it's Bond.
Justin Vivian Bond
Soho theatre,
London
Until 9 July
Box office:
020-7478 0100
