“I’m a monster in the making,” Laurenellen McCann, 32, whose drag alter ego is Buhnana Gunz, tells me. “If you could be anything, why would you just stay human?”
With the rise of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and the like, drag queens have entered the mainstream in D.C., and drag kings aren’t far behind. Drag performers traditionally use sultry catwalks and punchy red lipstick, or hulky strides and slouchy denim, as tools to poke fun at gender norms in exaggerated ways. But “monster drag” performer McCann uses their art to redefine and overturn gender expression, oftentimes crossing the lines into the surreal.
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