American singer, actress and activist Justin Vivian Bond was BOTD in 1963. Born in Hagerstown, Maryland, they studied theatre at Adelphi University before moving to San Francisco, starring in Kate Bornstein’s play Hidden: A Gender about the life of Herculine Barbin. They rose to fame as Kiki DuRane, the ageing alcoholic lounge singer of Kiki & Herb, a post-punk cabaret act created with Kenny Mellman. As Kiki, Bond tore through classic torch songs and pop hits with a husky nicotine-stained contralto, earning a diehard fan base on both sides of the Atlantic. They have performed extensively as a solo artist, featuring in John Cameron Mitchell’s sex dramedy Shortbus, playing Anna Madrigal in a musical of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City, an opera based on Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and the musical revue Only an Octave Apart with countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo. Bond’s 2012 memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels won a Lambda Literary Award. In 2024, they became one of the first trans artists to be made a MacArthur Fellow. A prominent activist for queer, trans and feminist causes, Bond has also popularised the use of “Mx” as a prefix and “v” as a pronoun for transgender identity.