Miss Unity is the stage name of Mathias Todd Mietzelfeld, an American writer, drag queen, and singer songwriter, and the reigning fifth-place runner up of the annual karaoke contest at the Otsego County Fair in upstate New York. His first book, the essay collection WHO KILLED MABEL FROST? is forthcoming in 2023 from SF/LD Books.
My profile was very clear. In my photo my lips were puckered, my eyes narrowed seductively. Rose emojis meant I wasn’t giving freebies. I talked a big game on the app, but I had only turned one trick so far and had no idea what I was doing.
After a five-month stint as an unpaid “gardening intern” at the Tennessee trans sex cult compound outside Smithville, after a month or so helping my sister catch painted buntings for science in the ruralest part of backwoods South Carolina, and, finally, after a month’s worth of dogsitting, also for my sister, in beautiful coastal Wilmington, NC, I went back to New York. Forrest, Hannah and Zibby picked me up in Baby Scribbla, Forrest’s antique Mercedes Benz – his first, to my knowledge, but certainly not last. The car couldn’t shift into fifth and so we skirted the Interstate wherever possible…