Braxton Tanner sits alone at a small table in the Gnu's Room wearing an Auburn baseball cap and a green Hollister sweater. Tanner looks like any college male, but he has a secret that most people couldn't guess by looking at him.
He is a drag queen.
"I love being able to look like a boy and fool people into thinking I am a woman, and then in 10 minutes go back to being a boy," said Tanner, sophomore in environmental design.
Tanner said being a drag queen isn't what most people think.
"A lot of people are confused and think that we as men would like to be women, but that is plainly not the case," Tanner said. "What drag is, is an art expression. For a lot of us, it's our theatre."
He sums it up in one quote.
"To steal a quote from the movie, 'To Wong Foo,' 'Drag is when a gay man has too much style sense for one gender,'" Tanner said.
His start in drag began last August.
"My first time out in drag was to a birthday party," Tanner said. "Then I started going to clubs."
One night at a club in Montgomery called 322, Tanner was encouraged to start performing.
"They said, 'You know what, you look fierce. You should come out for our amateur show,'" Tanner said.
His first time wasn't a success, but that didn't stop him.
"I came back, and I started winning competitions," Tanner said. "Then they asked me to eventually perform on the main stage."
The "main stage" is a cast of five drag queens who perform Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
The cast consists of Tanner, who named his persona Joan Oullet Wolfe, and four other drag queens named Thai, Chloe, Mindy and Felicia.
They perform almost every night there is a show and may be accompanied by a guest or the winner of an amateur show.
"If you win an amateur show, you are given one night to perform in one of the shows on the main stage," Tanner said.
Tanner said his confidence grew on the main stage from winning numerous amateur nights.
He said the other cast members were surprised by how good he was.
"He performed, and everyone was like 'Wow, who is this?'" said Chloe VonTrapp, a cast member at 322. "People took notice."
They were so impressed that they created a position especially for "Joan" on the main stage.
"She was young, fresh and exciting to watch," VonTrapp said. "She has a lot of natural stage presence."
Tanner's success in drag came from taking the time to build his persona.
"I prepared a lot for drag before I ever went out for the first time," Tanner said, "which is different from a lot of people."
Once Tanner decided he really wanted to get into drag, he said he saved money and bought expensive make-up and clothes before his debut.
"I really had time to sit and think about what my look was going to look like," Tanner said. "I was sitting there thinking about a name and so Joan Rivers--just her personality and a little bit of that edge and that crass--was attractive to me. I just thought, 'I have to incorporate Joan.'"
His drag middle name, Oullet, and last name, Wolfe, were just as inspired.
"Oullet is my drag family name," Tanner said. "When I started I was adopted into a drag family and that was my drag family name."
Tanner was brought into a "drag family" by fellow cast member Mindy Michelle who is known as his drag mother.
Tanner said the part of Joan's name that best represents her personality is Wolfe.
"I come from a Latino background, so Shakira was another huge inspiration, and she has the album She-Wolf," Tanner said. "So I took Wolf, and it also was this iconic sort of animal. It has this fierce and this edge to it. It's very stoic."
What Tanner most enjoys about being Joan is the illusion it creates.
"I am a fan of the extreme," Tanner said. "It is like the most stark illusion that you can make to confuse someone into thinking that I am not a man."
Tanner has created such a good illusion that people actually do mistake him for a woman.
"I have people ask me all the time who know I am a drag queen," Tanner said, "They say, 'Please tell me you are a real woman.'"
People may be confused by Tanner's gender because of the dedication he puts into actually looking like a woman--not like a man trying to look like a woman.
"He looks very polished," VonTrapp said. "He wears good costumes, and his makeup is amazing, very well put together from head to toe."
Tanner said he owes his femininity to the region.
"Queens in the Southeast are known for realness, padding," Tanner said. "We wear hip pads, butt pads. We duct tape our chests and stomach together. We like to literally look like a woman."
Even though Tanner finds excitement in drag, many people he has encountered don't understand it.
"It's either people don't notice, they really like it or they really don't like it," Tanner said. "There is not really any indifference."
Tanner even had an incident with harassment last year.
He said he filed a report with Auburn Public Safety, but nothing ever became of it.
"I don't think it is as big a deal for drag kings," Tanner said. "I think it's a big deal for drag queens because men have this iconic status, and when you demote yourself down to a woman, in certain people's minds, it is this shameful sort of deal."
Tanner receives support from friends and some of his family.
His parents don't know, but his cousins keep up with his shows.
"I don't think my parent's read The Plainsman, but if they do, it's not the first bridge I've had to cross," Tanner said.
Drag takes up a lot of Tanner's time, but he doesn't consider it all he is.
Tanner said he considers drag just a weekend thing.
He spends the rest of his time running around campus attending class, doing things for Spectrum, also known as Gay Straight Alliance, working at the herpetology lab and playing with his pet lizard, Tiki.
He hopes to one day use his environmental design degree to design exhibits for gardens, museums and zoos.
"I like taking something, like a blank slate, and creating something completely different." Tanner said.
"That is what motivates me into doing things, whether it be my job or drag. It's the way I live my life."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
