The musician Jayne County was born on July 13, 1947 under the name of Wayne Rogers, in the conservative southern United States, in Georgia. Although born in this traditional environment, by family members, almost all were respected by women. She lived with her mother, her lover and her aunt and played with her cousins. “I felt very comfortable in that female environment.” So, from his home, he worked with his mother's old dresses and dolls. “Wayne had to be a girl,” her grandmother said.

County picks up in the autobiography Man Enough To Be a Woman that “I was a Marictus child from the south, a girl. I don't know if it was because of my environment, because of my body's hormones, or two things. Her mother was injected with large amounts of estrogen when she was pregnant with me, because of her hereditary hormonal imbalance. But without a doubt, the environment had something to do with it, because I almost lived surrounded by women.”

County soon left his hometown to meet New York, London and Berlin. The scenes of these three cities immersed themselves in the undergrounds and stood out in the three, even though they never achieved great fame. He became an actor and musician from Underground until the recognition of underground beings. Thus, the fundamental character of the counter-cultural history of the twentieth century became more urgent, always standing in the background for its trans character. In fact, pop culture was liberating, but the industry was conservative. Precisely because of this, their relationships with the labels were conflicting and, in most cases, sterile. In addition, he suffered a series of discriminatory conduct by the men of the companies. “Being trans I’ve gotten a lot of publicity, but it’s been an obstacle to real success,” he says.

County leaves a mark on her career. He was one of the leading promoters of punk aesthetics; in 1969 he participated in the New York City Stonewall revolt, which became the catalyst for the LGTBIQ+ rights movement in the United States; Max’s Kansas was the keynote of the famous City Hall; he influenced the films and plays of Andy Warhol; David Gpungboy.

His random and friendly life was collected in the autobiography by the American Man Enough To Be a Woman (title of one of his songs), written in 1993. The book has been translated into Spanish by the Bruxista Collective of Asturias and in the translated edition they have received a rich liver alone written by County in 2021. The Asturians knew the book through Ibon Errazki, a former musician from the Le Mans and Adventures of Kirlian in San Sebastian, and was translated by Errazkin and Tito Painted.

“Gay Power! Gay Power! Gay Power!”

Enchanted by the echo of the British rock groups of the 1960s and animated by the pocket literature he had as main transvestites, County left his hometown to dive into the Atlantic gay subculture. “In just a year I became a bustling seasonal maritxu, I screamed at the completely makeup people, I asked the kids to take care of them and then run away from them (…) Maritxu, a weaver, did it, people left their good.”

In 1967, he left Atlanta and took a bus to go to San Francisco, but he got the line wrong and ended up in New York City. As he got off the car, he went to the only gay bar he knew, the Greenwich Village Stonewall, famous all over America.

"1969. In the summer of 2000 something happened that changed my life, although it took years to realize its importance.” County talks about Stonewall's revolt.

Police raided the bar in the second week around 01:00 on Friday and when the bar was crowded. About 200 clients were dismissed – lesbians, gays, transgender people, smoked teenagers and drags quenen. This crowd confronted the police who, for security, hid inside the bar. Homosexuals were accustomed to fleeing the police, but this time they were in attack and the police retired. The gay rights movement didn't start that night, but it recovered; it became a spark that ignited the movement.

“Miss Peaches and Miss Marcia, affectionate Village transvestites, were burning. They went out into the street, they closed the door to the bar, they swept away the trash and burned, and the cops were inside. When I got to the bar, the door was calcined and the police cars were coming everywhere.” Among the cries, the transvestites went up to the dogs' cars to jump: “Gay Power! Gay Power! Gay Power!” The scandal lasted until Sunday, although the rebellion sank on Sunday. The next day, on Monday, County found itself in the street with a “very hetero” hippy. “It won’t do anything (revolts),” he said. “The Marichos are not able to organize themselves,” he added. As County explains in her autobiography, many people agreed with the hippy. “Until the matter was dealt with from a political perspective, it took a long time, but the conflicts were not in themselves a political action (…) In those days we also had no concept of trans identity.”

 

 

Free fighting on stage

County's musical career has been the scene of countless mutations. In 1972 he formed the Queen Elizabeth group, which signed a contract with the management of David Bowie, but never recorded anything. Two years later, he formed Wayne County And The Backstreet Boys, and the team frequently played on the New York proto-punk scene, like the well-known CBGB and Max's Kansas City halls. Finally, in 1977 he experienced the punk explosion in London with the group Wayne County & The Electric Chairs, the name with which he headed in the Reverendos room in Pamplona in 1995.

Transgression and provocation were the two main features of County activity: the painful words of sex, the flashy dresses, and the raw guitars that rigorously traversed the glam-rock and the punk rock to offer shows close to risky performances. “I started as a man who made makeup, wore scandalous clothes and worked in rock. I didn't sing 'dance rock all night', but 'beat me', 'go to figs' or 'rarely are you in bed'.

This provocative and aggressive attitude is the story he lived with Handsome Dick Manitoba, singer of The Dictators. It happened in the 1970s, on the stage of the CBGB room, with The Backstreet Boys. Manitoba was a professional wrestling wrestler, and he proudly started insulting County: “Stop! Stop! That travesti!” The musician also responded aggressively. The manitoba heats up and goes up the tabside with a jar of beer in your hand. The musician hit him with the heavy foot of the micro until he broke the clavicle. “He flew from the stage, hit a table and opened his head with a corner.” The County was completely transvestite with hairy and red dress, with hands and face loaded with blood. The audience went crazy. “Kill, Wayne!” The team suddenly started playing Wash Me In The Blood Of Rock & Roll, as it could not be otherwise. Manitoba brought County to court, but the Dictators musician never appeared in court, so they rejected the charges.

Current County has little to do with the provocative and abrasive creator of punk. She is now the oldest woman living in her hometown, and she spends her days painting paintings around her cats. “I have a good place to live and have made a journey as a painter. I will enjoy this journey and remain creative until I die. It was not at all what I expected. It’s much better.”