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| © Nick San Pedro |
First introduced to the world on Season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race as the sister of drag star Alaska, Nebraska Thunderfuck has re-awoken to take the drag scene by storm. Now escaping her sister's shadow and becoming a fully fledged queen in her own right, is the world ready for Nebraska to take center stage?
Nebraska (real name Mackenzie Claude) is someone I've had an interest in since her resurfacing some time last year. She constantly grows as a performer; polishing her act for her growing fan base and evolving as a queen. We speak on a Tuesday evening and I am almost instantly blown away by how genuinely thoughtful she is, how gracious she is - how loving she is.
I got the chance to check in with the newest addition to the Haus of Thunderfuck on her future plans, her Marine career and her life now as part of a 'Trouple' with Drag Race Season 8 alumni Derrick Barry and Canvas, Fashion & Body Painting Artist Nick San Pedro.
M: How long have you been doing drag as Nebraska regularly
now?
N: For under a year. It’s still very new to me.
M: So tell me about Nebraska. Do you have a concept for her
currently?
N: Yeah absolutely – so the character was created on
RuPaul’s Drag Race where Alaska (Thunderfuck) and I had a cross country crime
spree, I took the fall obviously and Nebraska was charged and placed in
solitary confinement for the last two years. Thanks to new testimony from
Derrick Barry giving me an alibi, I was released and now I’m back plotting
world domination. Nebraska is just getting started.
M: What are your ideas for her? Do you have any set
direction you’d like to take her in?
N: I’m just letting it happen organically. I’m infusing my
personality into the character that Alaska created, I’m infusing my personal
experiences and letting that evolve Nebraska. My military background, my
personal struggles and successes are all creating this character. I love the
military concept because it’s very personal for me and so that is something
that’s going to be a constant with Nebraska.
M: That’s smart actually, I really like that!
N: Thanks!
M: So, you also have a successful career as a model – did
you grow up wanting to be a model or was it more something that just happened?
N: Well, I’ve always been tall so it’s always been innate but
it’s just that I didn’t think modelling was practical. Coming from foster care
my social worker told me I needed to find a job and keep it so that I could
survive and that’s exactly what I did. I found a job as soon as I was out of my
foster home and I’ve been working ever since. I joined the military so that I
could gather a financial stability so later I could pursue my own dreams.
That’s why I didn’t start modelling till later in life – I didn’t start
modelling until I was 25 –until my military contract was completed.
M: As you just said, before you started modelling you
completed a contract with the US marines and grew up in the foster care system
– both of which must’ve taken a lot of courage and you must’ve faced a lot of
rejection. Do you feel as if these processes have made you a stronger person?
Do you feel as if you’re still that person today?
N: Absolutely. What
doesn’t kill you always makes you stronger and I feel like life hasn’t always
been easy for me in particular. In the beginning I was confused; angry, I spent
a lot of time feeling defeated but I’ve channeled that into a positive and now
that’s what drives me to be successful. I never want to be in that situation
again.
M: You are remarkable in so many ways – yet so few people
have seen this side of you?
N: It’s not something… everybody has a story, y’know what I
mean? Everybody has struggles they went through. I’m just excited now I have a
platform on which I can share that with people and I hope that I can encourage
others who are in the situation I was in to persevere and to keep going –
whether they’re from a broken home or foster care. There is a light at the end
of the tunnel and if I found that light then they’re going to as well.
M: As part of a queer polyamorous relationship, do you feel
as if both members and non-members of the LGBT+ community need more education
on the topic of polyamory so there is less stigma?
N: Well, knowledge is power, so anyone can use more
knowledge on any subject – but yes, that is correct. I am in a committed trinogamous
relationship. I’ve been in this relationship with Derrick (Barry) and Nick (San
Pedro) now for almost four years and we call it a ‘trouple’ for short. It’s
just the three of us and it’s like any other relationship except that there’s an
extra person. We are interdependent; we live together, we sleep in the same
bed. I spent the first portion of my life feeling unloved and unwanted so I feel
like because I endured and I stayed positive, life has rewarded me now with
double the love and I’m so thankful. If anybody has an issue with that, and
that being my happiness; then that really doesn’t affect or bother me. I only
have two people that I answer to, and their names are Derrick and Nick.
M: As you said, well known queen Derrick Barry makes up one
third of your relationship. Did he help you in becoming Nebraska?
N: Well absolutely. He is one of the reasons I am pursuing a
career as Nebraska because he is the one who suggested it. He told me that I
should perform as Nebraska because then we can travel together – he’s going to
be travelling a lot more soon, and this
is a way I can go on the road with him so we can be together and work together.
Nebraska is one part Alaska, one part Derrick Barry and the rest me.
M: Nick San Pedro makes up another part of your
relationship. He is an incredible artist – would you say your life is more
creative now than it was 5-10 years ago?
N: Definitely. I feel like as a child my creativity was
robbed for me because of the situation I was in. Creativity and feelings attracted
attention, and attention attracted consequences and so I learnt to not be
creative and to not have feelings and I think that stayed with me. I think with
RuPaul’s Drag Race and Nebraska I really found my creativity again, and it’s a
lot of fun.
M: Would you say that you have a rigid bond with
masculinity?
N: Oh yeah, absolutely. I was in the military for six years
and I was a Navy Medic for the Marines. You kinda have to butch it up in the
military and for the first two years of that I had to go back into the closet
because the reality is I enlisted under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’. People weren’t
allowed to know I was homosexual, and if they did and they had a problem with
it I would risk losing my career and being discharged. Because of that I went
back into the closet and definitely butched it up. It wasn’t until a few years
into my service that I realized the Marines don’t give a fuck if you’re
gay or straight. They just care that you’re good at your job and I was a very
good medic so I made very close friends and we got to know each other. They
ended up knowing I was gay and they didn’t care. I feel like the Marines- those
were my boys, y’know? So when they did find out that I was gay; when we did
have that conversation - of course they had so many questions and they of
course wanted to know all the details and everything. It’s kinda humorous,
actually.
M: You sound like you had a positive experience!
N: I had a very positive experience in the military;
although it was difficult having to go back into the closet, because I do stand
up for what I believe in and I found that I have a strong backbone but
eventually that’s why I was able to come out in the military – because of those
things.
M: If you had the opportunity to work with any queen on a
show, who would it be and why?
N: I would love to collaborate with Alaska, after all she
did create this character and now that I’ve infused Nebraska with my own
personality I think it would be a Thunder-Fucking good time!
M: Would you ever apply to be on RuPaul’s Drag Race
yourself?
N: If I felt that I was ready then yes, absolutely. Would
you be #TeamNebraska?
M: Oh, absolutely!
N: Now I just need to learn how to do my makeup in under an hour and I'll be great!
M: If you could tell you from 5 years ago anything today, what would it be?
N: That will be okay, and it's always gonna work out.
FOLLOW NEBRASKA'S TRAIL OF WORLD DOMINATION HERE:
SPECIAL thanks to MACKENZIE CLAUDE AND MICHAEL BENEDETTI. PHOTOS BY NICK SAN PEDRO.