Gay Pride Primer: A chat with Wanda Wisdom
It’s time to get gay, Minneapolis. After The Advocate called us the gayest city in America, it’s practically our duty to march alongside the nearest tranny while eating a Bomb Pop and shaking a maraca. As Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak told The A.V. Club, “[Pride is] especially important because it takes place when we now know we are going to go out and win a battle for equal rights on the ballot in a year.” To get in spirit for this weekend’s Twin Cities Pride celebration in Loring Park, we got the insider scoop from Wanda Wisdom (by day, Bradley Traynor), the world’s first podcasting drag queen, known for her column for Lavender magazine.
The A.V. Club: If the Twin Cities were drag queens, who would Minneapolis be, and who would St. Paul be?
Wanda Wisdom: Minneapolis would be RuPaul, because she’s more well-known and a little bit glitzier and mainstream. St. Paul would be Lady Bunny—she’s edgier, not as well known, and kind of offensive.
AVC: Why is St. Paul offensive?
WW: I don’t know, just because people poke fun at St. Paul all the time. It’s a little grittier.
AVC: What snack at Pride is the ultimate symbol of gay pride?
WW: It’s got to be, like, a foot-long hot dog, on a stick.
AVC: What about lesbian pride?
WW: A snack food? Do I dare say fish tacos?
AVC: You’re in the parade this year. What’s your float like?
WW: This year it’s a big old gay trolley. It’s like an old-school trolley, and they’ve created this giant thing on the front. It looks like I’m a hood ornament.
AVC: What will you be wearing?
WW: I’m going to be—I’m still putting it together—a sexy retro-streetcar conductor drag queen. I don’t even know what that really looks like.
AVC: Is anyone walking in the parade that you’re particularly excited about seeing?
WW: I always get excited about the Firm. They always have one of the crazy instructors, Diva Doug; he always puts together an amazing float for them. I love the giant slags they have.
My favorite is the people [about whom] you’re like, “Why are you in the parade?” People dressed up as horses. This woman had a bridle in her mouth and this guy wasn’t riding her, but was behind her with those leather straps ... it’s like: Why is that gay pride? But whatever, they have those in all sorts of sexual orientations; we just get the benefit of having them in our parade.
AVC: How do you explain Pride to a newbie, like an old grandma from the suburbs?
WW: It’s a gay circus.
AVC: What do you think about Target sponsoring this year?
WW: I would think it’s the least they could do. There’s a certain portion of people who will just not be happy no matter what they do.
AVC: Do you think the Twin Cities are progressive?
WW: Absolutely. I think sometimes we don’t think we’re as progressive as we claim to be, but I challenge anybody to go somewhere else. It’s not that there aren’t other progressive places, but on the day-to-day walk down the street, you might hear somebody say something if you’re holding your boyfriend’s hand, but I’ve never felt not-safe or not-accepted. It’s a huge thing we take for granted. You don’t have to go far to appreciate that.
AVC: What’s the best thing about being gay in Minneapolis?
WW: This is an obvious one, but I love the drag show at the 90’s. It’s easy to criticize them and say they’re just lip-synching and doing pop stars’ music, but the amount of effort they put into it is amazing, and we’re extremely lucky to have something like that that happens every night of the week.
AVC: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in Minneapolis gay culture in the last 10 years?
WW: It’s much broader. The opportunity to express yourself and be a part of the gay community is far more broad than when I was in college. When I was in college, there were like five places you could go, and there were certain things you did to identify yourself as part of the community, whereas now people don’t just go to gay bars, they go wherever they want.
