Sexualisation, fetishising, misunderstanding and division are just some of the issues that Queer people face within regional and rural communities, as told by Gympie Queer Creative Anna Brennan.
Anna is a local comedian, artist, writer, grant writer and general jack of all trades who created the popular drag character Bruce Highway and as a member of the Queer community has faced her fair share of challenges in her life and career.
“I identify as not fussy,” she said.
“My first instinct is to say theres probably less challenges in the creative space than there would be in the conventional corporate one.
“I don’t know whether that’s true anymore.”
“I’ve been booked for shows because Im Queer a couple of times, as in like, it’s a queer lineup or they’ve got a minority box to tick or whatever so sometimes that’s a thing.
“I think it’s the same as being female, sometimes it’s an advantage, sometimes its a disadvantage and you’re stuck with it, so I don’t analyse too much because I cant change it.”
Bruce Highway is the alter ego/drag king character that Anna performs as for comedy routines, which made a debut at a show in April 2023 for Youth week in Gympie.
The show came after council had approached Anna after surveys conducted by council showed that the youth of Gympie wanted to see drag performers and stand up comedy.
This is where Anna picked up the mantle Bruce Spanklin who was based off Chris Franklin who later became Bruce Highway.
However, when the event was held, protestors were detesting the event claiming that the content was inappropriate for the older teenagers attending.
“They decided it was inappropriate for them to see drag performers at all and that actually made me a quote ‘pedophile’ which I was called on the street more than once publicly in the street in the lead up to it,” she said.
“The thing that I found the most heartbreaking was the one of the lead protesters and people who told me I was a pedophile in front of my son was that she was a lesbian.
“How do we have this much division within the Queer community, it’s just the most depressing part of that for me.”
And now Bruce has taken over parts of Anna’s career where Bruce will now get booked for events where Anna is not welcome at but Bruce is.
“They specifically go, we want Bruce to host this, not you,” she said.
“I feel like it’s my choice whether me or Bruce show up but no that is not always the case now.
“People get disappointed seeing me and not Bruce.”
Another challenge Anna has faced is the sexualisation of same-sex relationships between women.
“I think the most annoying part for me is just how overly sexualised guys make all-girl relationships, make lesbian relationships,” she said.
“Especially if you’re trying to date, so if I’m online dating and I set my thing to say I’m Bi or Queer or whatever, you just, rurally get, hit up for like ‘aw so you’re just a slut who wants a threesome’ like alot and you don’t get that in Melbourne when I lived there.
“If I want to hook up with straight guys here, I almost need to change my profile to say that I’m a straight women because then it’ll counteract that whole, you like girls lets just have a threesome thing.
“I find it exhausting, basically.”
Another aspect to this that Anna is noticed is how women that appear with their partners in public are often ogled and seen as performative.
“It’s the same if you’re out in public with another women in Gympie, like I haven’t done that alot of times but I’ve definitely noticed its a very like performative feel to it,” she said.
“There’s just a lot of people creeping on it.
“We’re literally not here for your entertainment.”
