Sockpuppet Blog.

Transgender Day of Visibility

Today is Transgender Day of Visibility, and as a transgender musician who has been releasing music online since the 1990s (and writing music since the 1980s), it’s super important to me that members of my community get seen today. The complex feelings around being transgender have always been a big part of my music, even before I had the words to express it.

My album Transitions (and its companion Deadnames) are perhaps the most obviously on-the-nose trans-related albums of mine, but it’s woven into the DNA of so much of my music. The songs All Tan, Adding Up to Nothing, Hypnagogic, Material Change, and Fool in the Middle are all quite specifically about gender feels, but being trans has informed everything about my life and my existence.

Here are some other lesser-known trans musicians of note (in no particular order):

  • Bedussey, self-described as “bedroom pop-punk”
  • elizabeth veldon, a noise/drone artist
  • ella guro makes ridiculously awesome abstract chiptune soundscapes
  • Jennifer Vena Wood goes more for affirmational acoustic folksy stuff which feels super underrepresented in trans music these days and I’m 100% here for it
  • Kookie sings a bunch of songs about being trans, and about being a Linux user, two things which are super entwined in my experience
  • Left at London does a super interesting fusion of classic and modern forms
  • Patricia Taxxon does incredible weird experimental music
  • Ratwyfe makes fun songs about all sorts of things; definitely check out cryptid (mothman) which is super relatable
  • Trust Fund Ozu makes some amazingly lush musical textures in what feels like an amazing balance between rock and hyperpop

There are of course many, many more out there; I put out a call for recommendations and was absolutely overwhelmed by the number of trans artists I was pointed to! It was super difficult to pick just a few to showcase here, and it would be a disservice to let them go without further mention. Thank you so much to everyone who shared their own picks.

Also, please check out the Seattle Trans and Nonbinary Choral Ensemble, a choir I am extremely proud to be a part of.