New York's a wild town. Sure, it gets much of its reputation from the hustle and bustle of international culture, fashion, art and everything in-between, but the true meat comes from its fierce, uninhibited inhabitants. Take, for example, downtown darling Ladyfag.

Since moving from Toronto, this woman has taken the nightlife scene by storm, commingling with the freshest - and most made-up - faces in town. Ladyfag lives her life as she sees fit - taking chances, pushing envelopes and making no apologies for her love of the glittering game:

Most of the things I do, my parents would not approve of, but if you ever go out in queer nightlife, you know what wild’s all about. It’s just being over the top. Just meet me at The Cock one time and you’ll see wild styles!

It's at The Cock - by way of a seder - that Queerty correspondent Michelle Groskopf chatted with Ladyfag about the evolution of her aforementioned wild style, the ins and outs of a good gender fuck and how women can embrace their inner faggot. Read the results, after the jump.

Michelle Groskopf: I’ve known you for a very long time, so let’s start at the beginning. When I met you, you were creating a certain character for yourself in high school. Why don’t you talk about that?

Ladyfag: I don’t know what character per se I might have been creating, but I think that’s actually a good way to put it. That’s way I do things: in that over the top fashion. Anything I do is a full character; I don’t really look at life in any other way.

MG: Talk about your first introduction to the queer scene in Toronto.

LF: I didn’t have that many friends in high school. Then after high school, I didn’t feel connected to too many people. I didn’t find a place that felt like me and like home. I started hanging out at gay clubs. That was the first place where I not only felt like I belong, but I also felt appreciated for who I am. That was ten years ago and I have not looked back since.

MG: Who do you feel you are?

LF: I feel like I’m me, exactly who I am. I’m unapologetically a woman and proud of it. I’m unapologetically a fag and proud off that, too.

MG: What does it mean to be a woman and a fag at the same time?

LF: It’s a lifestyle. It’s the way you talk, the way you think, it’s where you feel comfortable, it’s the way you dress… It’s just who you are. It’s your core being. It’s who I am. It’s either understood or it’s not. It’s hard to explain in words.

MG: What does the word “faggot” mean to you, then?

LF: I guess what draws me to it is the over-the-topness, the fierceness. It makes me feel fierce in who I am. It’s – oh, god, that’s a really tough question – what makes a faggot? Does it mean it’s a man who sucks another man’s cock? No. That just means he’s a gay man. It doesn’t mean he’s a faggot. It’s political, but it goes beyond that. It’s a lifestyle. It’s who you are. It’s not only about gayness. I take it to step ahead where it’s about queerness. I take it past that, because it’s all stemming from queerness and a queer culture, but it goes even beyond that.

MG: When did you start to recognize your inner faggot?

LF: I’ve felt this way for a long time. It’s only been in the past three or four year that I started claiming it more. It’s a bit of a gender fuck, as well. I spent so many years constantly being questioned if I’m a man or a woman. I learned about myself through queer men and especially through a lot of transsexuals. I feel really inspired and honored being around these women who aren’t born women, because, to me, they are the ideal women. They’re over the top; they’re confident in themselves and just fierce. To me, they’re the ultimate feminists.

MG: Who are some of the people who most directly influenced you?

LF: There are a lot of different things that could make a woman a lady fag and they’re not all the same things. Cher’s a good example. Or Queen Elizabeth. Suzanne Bartsch is real inspiration for me. Women who shunned what other people think they should be as women. [They] surround themselves by a bunch of men who respect the kind of women that they are. Right now, I live in New York City and I’m surrounded by some of the fiercest queens: Kim Aviance, Suzanne Bartsch, Amanda Lepore, Rainblo… These are my friends and my peers. They’re all people who really inspire me and who I feel comfortable with and I feel at power with them.

MG: What made you make the move to New York after having some success in Toronto?

LF: Well, I came here and I wasn’t planning on staying and it kind of just snowballed. I started meeting – there are just so many more opportunities and so many more people who I can relate to here. I love Toronto. When I was in Toronto, I was doing drag. I love doing that and it’s a part of me. Even day-to-day, there [are] a lot of times when I definitely relate to being a drag queen. Sometimes I am being a female-to-female impersonator, but I don’t feel like I have to do that so much anymore. That was part of me figuring out who I am. When I came here, I could just be Ladyfag as Ladyfag. I couldn’t be that and just go back to being a drag queen.

MG: Explain what it means to do female-to-female and how that sort of progressed into Ladyfag…

LF: Female-to-female – that’s a full gender fuck where I’m trying to fool people into [thinking] that I’m a woman who’s dressed as man who’s dressed as a woman. That’s not who I am. But at the same time, I understand drag culture and I have so much respect for it. It was easy and natural for me to be doing drag, but this seems like a natural progression. There are a million different titles and a million different ways that I feel on different days, but it’s always me. “Ladyfag” seems to be the most appropriate name for it. And, you know, a lot of people get it and that’s fine, too, because in all honesty, I don’t always understand it.

MG: Can you talk about some of your performance art?

LF: I do lots of different types of art and performance art. They touch on so many different things in so many sorts of mediums, but I’m always trying to put out a message of who I am and claim what it is I am. Even if it doesn’t seem political, it is. Even me going out some night and going go-go dancing in a crazy outfit, dancing with the banshees or doing MC work in my persona, it’s always political. It’s claiming who I am.

MG: What do you want to say to the other Lady Fags out there – women who feel that they have an inner faggot?

LF: Just be yourself. Claim it as your own thing, because it is your own thing. You belong there just as much as anyone else. We’re all outsiders. You just kind of have to stick with who you are and do it full force. That’s pure faggotry. You don’t do anything half-assed. You just do it. That’s female faggotry.