Issue one: Contents

Peaches Christ
Buck Angel
How to be a successful stalker
Hayley Cropper
Lauren Harries
Five documentaries you should own
Strut your tranny stuff in London
How to look like Pete Burns

About the author

I've only just come across the phrase tranny hag, though I've been one as far back as I can remember. I had my childhood through the 70s glam rock era and my first drag crush was Steve Priest of the Sweet. I would stare unblinking at the TV during Top of the Pops, waiting for him to pop up in his spiked helmet and lipstick screeching "we just haven't got a clue WHAT to do". I also remember Saturday night TV with Dame Edna Everage and Hinge & Bracket. My favourite of all was Dick Emery - camp humour, amazing costumes and the best catchphrases of all time. Who can forget his dizzy blonde man-chaser? "Ooh, you are awful, but I like you."

Everything changed when I ran into Pete Burns when I was 16. Yes, I know he's technically not a drag queen or a tranny, but he was my first real-life encounter with glamour and androgyny. I was raised in an oppressive white suburb of Liverpool, and he was my key to another world. I was crippled with teenage shyness but I slowly made friends with him and his wife, Lynn, these were the days before he got famous. One night he invited me to see Sylvester and it was like I had been reborn.

My first night in a gay club - witnessing this amazing beauty with the voice of an angel - and my first night on the town with my idol. The "real" world would never be enough again. From that evening I have been preoccupied with the pursuit of glamour and any deviation from traditional gender roles. I love reading about Native American cultures where male children who displayed feminine characteristics were valued by the tribe as sacred. They believed that the Great Spirit had sent the child to act as a bridge between the sexes, someone who understood both sides of the human condition.

And I truly consider it a blessing to be gender queer. We are free from the shackles of constraint that try to force our mode of behaviour. I have produced this magazine to pay tribute to my idols and learn more about the people who inspire me. This issue has been self-financed and hand produced, and at the moment I don't know if there'll be another one. I hope you enjoy it, and if you'd like to contribute, please get in touch.

Dawn Right Nasty
dawn@trannyhag.info