Sandie Crisp (AKA The Goddess Bunny) is a Los Angeles drag queen, actress, and model. Transgender and born with polio, she labels herself as the last glamor star of Hollywood and has been an inspiration to many to never give up no matter the odds. In 2020 Crisp announced her candidacy for President of the United States under the platform of uniting the country again.

Where did the name Goddess Bunny come from?

In 1986 I won a contest in West Hollywood that deemed me a Goddess. People just started calling me Goddess Bunny and it just stuck.

You've conquered LA as a star, what does the city mean to you?

Los Angeles is my home. If you don't show respect for the home that you live in you'll never be able to carve out the rest of your life.

You've defied the odds for misfits and punks everywhere and proved that you can accomplish anything no matter the obstacle, what advice do you give the ones who look up to you?

I am the original rebel and I will never be put in a box. Just because I was born a certain way doesn't mean I have to follow suit with that brand. Nobody has to follow suit in how they are born and the obstacles they go through. I'm the queen of the underground. I just don't take bullshit. When we are born we are taught a lot of things and the first thing we are taught is how to communicate. We need to start using our communication skills a lot more intelligently so things won't be as screwed up as they are. That's why I'm running for president.

So you are running for President in 2020?

Yes, it's a write-in campaign. Basically, when you go vote you write my name in, Sandie Crisp. Now, of course, the country doesn't know about this but if I get 65% of the young people to write my name in I think we have a good shot. This way the media won't see me coming! Now that Kanye West has shot himself in the foot it's time to boost up my campaign.

And you ran for mayor of Inglewood in 2014? What did you learn from that election that you can take into this one?

Let me speak this in as plain of English as possible. Every American, every visitor from other countries, are going to be treated as human beings when I'm president. I don't care what color their skin is, I don't care what language they speak. I will equal out the pay for men and women, women will make the same amount as men for doing the same job. All the programs that Donald Trump closed I am going to open back up. I want to sit in congress and discuss it with them. We are working for this country, I don't care what house you're in, we are to be a fine-tuned machine. You are either with the people or you're out of here!

I think congress needs a women like you to shake some shit up!

They will look at me and go, "Where in God's name did this person come from?" It's about time we have someone like me in charge! When I'm in the White House all my children are coming to live with me!

How do you think you will connect with the people?

I've lived all around the USA since the day I was born. I'm all-American honey. I will lower all your rents, you don't have to live paycheck to paycheck. Once I'm in office I will end this racial divide. When I do my address to the nation I will let everyone know there's a new sheriff in town!

How would you handle the ongoing police brutality in this country?

They would be instantly stripped of their badge and put in jail. Police are just the school yard bullies all grown up. I would make it really bad for them by putting them in the gay tank too. You ever seen a straight man in a room full of drag queens? They get pretty scared real quick!

What does your vision of the future look like?

I want the United States to be like when I grew up, we didn't have bars on our windows. We knew our neighbors, our neighbors were there for us when something bad happened. We need to start getting close to our neighbors. Let's make friends with all the people around us for God's sake!

You'd certainly be like no other president this country has ever seen.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden's minds are fuckin wasted dude. Yes, I'm in a wheelchair, yes I might need someone to wipe my ass when I go to the bathroom, but I'll tell you what, we had a disabled president before!

You're referring to Franklin D Roosevelt?
Bingo! The same disability I have which is Polo. If he could run this country then so could I!

Do you have a campaign slogan?
"This is our country, we made it together, so let's live together as one."

Image of Goddess Bunny: By Rick Hall – Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3172449

Image of White House: By AgnosticPreachersKid – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4119836

Time stood still when I heard the news that Daniel Johnston left us this month. There are only a few moments in one's lifetime when time stands still. At the time I felt guilty for the sorrow I felt and for the tears that I cried, because if you're a Johnston fan, you know he wouldn't want that. It wasn't simply the fact of death that caused my sorrow, but also the sudden understanding that I would never see an artist of this caliber in my lifetime again.

The first time I heard Johnston's music, I was thirteen, at an age when self-discovery seemed so crucial my mind and body felt like they were on fire. The year had not been a particularly good one for me and it felt like any daily event could change the course of who I was forever. I couldn't put it into words myself, but I craved a sense of security — I craved a sense of identity, however strange it would be. I wanted a world where I could run away to escape everything going on around me, if only for a short while. Music was an obvious escape from reality, a place where I couldn't be bothered.

After some time spent going to record stores, watching old bootlegs of musicians, and wandering into clothing shops, I began to notice one image that kept catching my attention: Jeremiah the Innocent, the little cartoon frog from the cover of Johnston's Hi, How Are You. It seemed like everywhere I turned, he would be there, staring and asking me how I was. The answer was always "not very good."

It was probably 2010. I listened to music by downloading it off LimeWire from a computer I shared with my brothers. I remember I typed "Daniel Johnston: in the search bar and only one song came up: "Walking the Cow." I put it on my iPod, and when I pressed play, I heard the sound of a toy impersonating barn animals: "Do you hear the frog?" Then, a muffled voice in the background: "Hi, how are you?" I had already been hearing the frog say this in my head and now I was finally going to have a conversation with him. What came next was unlike anything I had ever heard. It was as if it was beamed in from another dimension, one I belonged in. I almost didn't believe this was actually the album I was searching for and that it was perhaps a file posing as the real song. It didn't really matter, though, because I knew whatever it was had already changed me. Someone out there had captured the ghosts I was feeling all around me and managed to record them. It was undeniably magic.

I saved up money to buy a copy on tape to listen to on an old Walkman from Goodwill. It's the first time I remember feeling I was listening to a "masterpiece" and the first time I remember feeling I was not alone.

From that moment on and throughout the span of my teenage years, Daniel Johnston felt like my savior in a very literal sense, and I spent my time living in the world he created. I had Johnston's frog laminated on the front cover of my Bible for scripture classes. My notebooks were covered with his lyrics and the inside of my closet door was lined top-to-bottom with print-outs of his artwork. My mind was developing rapidly and my grip on reality fell apart sometimes, but I always had a haven knowing someone out there knew what I was feeling. "Yip/Jump Music" for the manic highs, and its sister album "Hi, How Are You?" for depressive lows, were each other's yin and yang. They got me to the other side.

Daniel and I shared a similar religious upbringing wherein we learned that Christianity is built on sacrificing realism for the sake of something greater. Daniel strived to create these spontaneous expressions of the Holy. You hear him say "there's a heaven and there's a star for you" through the fuzz of the tape, but the meaning can shift any which way once the Holy breaks through, that transcendence beneath the surface. I spiritually related to every word Daniel ever penned down and bellowed out, and I felt as if I understood everything he ever wanted to convey; I cannot say that about any other artist. He absorbed all of my pain and held it on his back with love. His struggle to be understood by the outside world was my triumph in understanding myself.

Daniel wore his influences on his sleeve, openly obsessing over The Beatles and Jack Kirby as his heroes. I will forever wear Daniel Johnston on my sleeve. My first feature film King Baby could not have been made without his influence and it is ultimately dedicated to his legacy. I titled the first act with a line ripped straight from the Songs of Pain tape: "All That is Made is Made to Decay." I would not be the person I am today without his guidance and philosophies — to constantly be creating things, no matter what gets in your way, and to work with whatever you have in front of you — so I bow to him with bruised knees. The underlying message in all his work is hope, and that is what he's left us with. He is still teaching me how to fight demons, and I will always be learning from the best.

To me, Daniel Johnston is the greatest songwriter this world has known, forever the true American genius. Although it pains me to know he is with Casper the Friendly Ghost now, it was a miracle he ever with us to begin with. I like to think that his passing will bring all-new eyes and ears to his work, people who will need it as much as I did. I'm sure someone out there now is feeling less alone as they listen.

On the track "Go" off of Respect, he sings,"To understand and be understood is to be free" I can tell you, Daniel Johnston, that you are absolutely free. Thank you.