GINGER COYOTE
- August Bernadicou
- 10 hours ago
- 6 min read
PUNK GLOBE MAGAZINE, WHITE TRASH DEBUTANTES, PERFORMER
I learned more from Ginger Coyote than I did in private school or college. Somehow, in 2008, when I was 13 years old, I found Punk Globe magazine. With Punk Globe, I found Ginger, who has published Punk Globe since 1977, the first year of the punk movement. She started the magazine in San Francisco and is now a Hollywood fixture. Punk Globe is nearly 50 years old. Most publications fold after a few years. Not Ginger and not Punk Globe.
Ginger let me write for Punk Globe. From my childhood bedroom in Stockton, California, I interviewed all my heroes. That was my teenage goal. Become Cameron Crowe, get attention, and meet everyone who changed the world. I wanted to “be somebody.” I wanted to go backstage and be immersed in the lives of my interviewees. Ginger gave me permission. My age did not matter to Ginger. She saw something in me that no one else saw. I became a “boy wonder.” Maybe I was the only 13-year-old punk rock and outsider writer. I interviewed people and wrote reviews. Ginger did not treat me like a kid or a novelty. She sees the good in everyone.
Ginger taught me two very important lessons: “If you don’t pump yourself up, no one else will,” and “Wild women don’t die. They just dye their hair and get wilder.” She would also tell me that the then-and-now online Punk Globe got 50,000 views a month, which is the same number of hits LGBTQHP gets. Unfortunately, Ginger and I do not talk anymore, but Ginger, if you are reading this, you changed my life, and you changed the world.
Punk Globe is an accessible music and culture magazine. It was ahead of the curve. Ginger is from Iowa and brave. She has spent her life creating a space for people who did not fit neatly into the mainstream. Outside of Punk Globe, Ginger fronts the band White Trash Debutantes.
Punk Globe is not intentionally political, but it is political because it features counterculture legends who fought back against heteronormativity and the white-picket-fence lifestyle. Punk Globe publishes events, happenings, and, of course, Ginger’s ranting Hot Gossip. It used to feature Ginger’s famous column, Ask Sonny Bono. Ginger made me “Punk of the Month” once.
Ginger’s legacy continues in the new Bambi Lake book, Devour Me, Again (2026). She is mentioned in a poem about Jello Biafra, and I thank her in the acknowledgments. Ginger and Bambi were a dynamic duo in the San Francisco punk daze. I did not know this until after Ginger and I split and I became close to Bambi. I will never forget Ginger. The world shouldn’t either.
The following excerpted interview was conducted via email for Punk Globe. It has been lightly edited for clarity and readability, but I have preserved the original substance and voice. If I were to guess, it is from 2008-2010. I kept nearly everything I did, and I just found this interview. Thank you to Ginger and Punk Globe. I owe you everything.
— August Bernadicou, Executive Director of The LGBTQ History Project
“My name is Ginger Coyote, but sometimes I use Cyndi Lauper and Erica Kane as aliases. My high school was the late 70s and early 80s punk venue, the Mabuhay Gardens. I would say I was pretty fucking cool. It was my ‘Rock ‘n Roll High School’! Some of my classmates included Courtney Love, Roddy Bottum, Thalia Drori, Billy Gould, Meri St. Mary, Satz Beret, East Bay Ray, Kirk Hammett, Jim Carroll, Chester Simpson, Kathy Peck, Steve Linsley, Atom Ellis, Jello Biafra, John Hawkes, to name just a few of my alums.
All of my life, I just didn't fit in. But I never gave up, and I sure as fuck did not quit. Some say I'm too much, but in reality they are not enough for me. Oh, can't you see I'm the kinda woman I'm supposed to be.
Like most everyone else, I grew up making some stupid mistakes and also some very smart decisions. I attended the Mabuhay Gardens School of Hard Knocks. One of the brightest things I did was not getting involved really heavily in the drug scene. Randy Hobbs, the bass player for Johnny Winter, told me that a virgin arm was hard to find. I always remembered that when others were trying to get me to shoot up drugs. Many people put me down, but I am alive.
I started Punk Globe to mainly help promote local bands that were going unnoticed such as No Alternative, the VKTMS, the Tools, Dead Kennedys, Regime, Lady LaRue, Times Five, Mutants, Regime, the Lewd, the Jaws, Crime, the Spectators, Housecoat Project, Rhythm Riot, the Sheets, Sweet Tommy, Helios Creed, Chrome, No Sisters, Siobhan Lowe, Jim Carroll, Leila & the Snakes, Maryann Price, the Offs, The Contractions, VS, Snuky Tate, Rick and Ruby, and Mary Monday. There are too many to name.
I think everyone has the same obstacles in life. It is about taking the deck of cards you were
given at birth and playing them to the best of your ability. Lenore Real Cool Chick once told me, when I was worrying about something, that I should stop and think about what I was worrying about 6 months ago. I made it through that, and if I really wanted to worry, I could go back a few years and think what it was that I was worrying about then. In essence, it all comes out in the wash. They are very wise words.
Of course, I wanted to quit when I was going into debt and feeling very unappreciated. It happens to everyone. I would always talk with friends, and they would convince me to stick to it because it would bring me respect in the future. I guess they were all fortune tellers because my tenacity has paid off.
I got a lot of support from the community: advice from friends on where to get good deals on photo screens and print shops. Lots of friends wanted to help in any way they could. The bands that Punk Globe supported played benefit shows to help support future issues, but doing a monthly zine in print, even back then, took lots of bank.
The first year, they were Xeroxed copies. They had their charm—gossip, spotlights on bands, soap operas, and the people who went to the shows. Most of all, I just wanted to present all the fun and wild abandon that was involved in the punk scene. The only other punk zine was Search and Destroy, and it was way too elitist for my taste. I adored Ruby Ray, a staff photographer for Search and Destroy and then-girlfriend of Vale, the editor.
There are so many people whom I met in my early days in punk that I am still close with: Dirk Dirksen, who booked the Mabuhay Gardens and On Broadway. He was called 'the Pope of Punk' by the San Francisco press. He inspired and encouraged me. Lenore Real Cool Chick, and Herb Caen were also people who inspired me. Jim Carroll was an absolute gem! He would talk with me for hours about my dreams and goals. Joey Ramone and Bebe Buell were always encouraging me. There were so many people who were part of the early days. Kathy Peck, Meri St. Mary, Joey Ramone, Bebe Buell, Nyna Crawford, Carl Campbell, Roseanne and Roy Holmes, Danielle Bardazzi York, Julie Stein, Bob Foltz, Tammy Foltz, Sharon Leong, Dean Thomas, Ike Lubenecki, Olga de Volga, Viva LaRue, Brother Ed, Lady Trash, Dave Dictor, Timm Carney, Tim Armstrong, the late Marian Anderson, Lula Perla, Sonja Craig, Leslie Michel, Vito Paulekas, BB Paulekas, Siobhan Lowe, Nick Traina, Adam P, Daniel de Leon, Marilyn McIntosh, Punk Rock Patty Pierce, Stacy Tuttle, Pauli Gray, Vera Ramone King, and Chelsea Rose—so many people.”
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The LGBTQ History Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit preserving the lives and legacies of LGBTQ+ activists from the first wave of gay liberation through oral histories, archives and the QueerCore Podcast.
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