Steam Powered Giraffe: transitioning members, unchanging fanbase.

“I had a brand and a character that looks very different from the character I portray now,” says Isabella Bennett, who plays Rabbit, one of the musical steampunk robots in Steam Powered Giraffe. The band character transitioned from male to female in 2014, mirroring Bennett’s real-life transition. “It was a big change and, honestly, one for the better, I think, ‘cause I’m in a better place and it hasn’t hurt our [online popularity] numbers at all. Rolling Stone did an article [on singer Laura Jane Grace, who also transitioned publicly] that was floating around at the time. It made it easier, seeing other trans people out and about on the internet, doing, like, video blogs saying, ‘Hey, I’m out here, this is what I did,’ and eventually I think it just kind of cracked through my egg and I was able to hatch, finally.”

The character of Rabbit often broke down and malfunctioned, requiring upgrades and parts reflected with makeup and costume revisions. It’s easy to draw a parallel between Bennett’s pre-transition struggles and Rabbit’s, but the role-playing universe created by SPG goes beyond such armchair observations. Aside from playing multiple instruments, portraying the band’s Giraffe puppet on stage, and doing humorous MST3K-style film commentary on Instagram, Bennett writes most of the lore for the band and illustrates comic books that spin the band’s steampunk backstory. The comment sections online and in print reveal an emotional connection to SPG fans that made the transition celebratory.

“It makes sense that we have a supportive and progressively minded fanbase, because it’s what our whole thing is. Wholesomeness and feeling kind of like an outsider and telling people that it’s okay to be different, it’s okay to be yourself. Hang on to that hope, hang on to your heart, and never let that deviate, because the world needs some good-hearted people.”