Trans Voices Mix Tape #1

The greatest hit songs you never knew were by gender non-conforming musicians

Graphic by Stephenie, elements from selfie, Spotify playlist, and photo on Pixabay

Welcome to TRANSlating Everything, a newsletter covering pop culture, news, politics, and the science of storytelling through the lens of a cool trans mom. You can support my work by leaving a tip or choosing a paid subscription to Translating Everything on Medium or Substack.

I’m almost forty years old. I’ve been working on my trans voice since I was a little girl in Mississippi just trying to survive trans conversion therapy. Once I escaped, what helped me find my voice was finding a vocal role model. An inspiration. Someone who faced similar obstacles to sounding not just good but good enough to win awards and dominate the airwaves.

Or at least good enough to order at Starbucks and not get misgendered.

See also: Now THAT’S Trans Xmas Music! Volume 1 (Prism & Pen)

Trans Voices Mix Tape #1

Below are profiles for 12 trans and gender non-conforming musicians responsible for the biggest hit songs of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And if you want to listen to these singers while you get to know them, Mix Tape #1 is pre-loaded below for you on Spotify.

My personal favorite is Ryan Cassata!!!

1. Laith Ashley

Laith Ashley De La Cruz is an American model, actor, activist, singer-songwriter, and entertainer of Dominican descent.

2. Peppermint

Peppermint, or Miss Peppermint, is an American actress, singer, songwriter, television personality, drag queen, and activist. She is best known from the nightlife scene and, in 2017, as the runner-up on the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. But more than that, her star has expanded to include irresistible songs like “Civil War” and the hilarious parody of Lady Gaga’s “Telephone,” which Peppermint playfully entitled “Make Me Moan.”

3. Frances Forever

Frances Garrett, known professionally as Frances Forever, is an American singer-songwriter. They are best known for their song “Space Girl”, which became a viral hit on TikTok in 2020. Garrett is pansexual, non-binary, and uses singular they pronouns. They were diagnosed with ADHD as a child. In 2021, Garrett earned a degree in music and music technology from Clark University.

4. Christine and the Queens

Héloïse Adélaïde Letissier, known professionally as Christine and the Queens and Redcar, or occasionally simply Chris, is a French singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Nantes, he started learning piano at the age of four and found inspiration in one of London’s clubs while studying.

He has stated that he is “in resistance to the approach of trans identity that there has to be hormones and operations”, which he considers as a form of binarism.

5. Ryan Cassata

Ryan Otto Cassata is an American musician, public speaker, writer, filmmaker, and actor. Cassata speaks at high schools and universities on the subject of gender dysphoria, being transgender, bullying and his personal transition from female to male, including top surgery in January 2012, when he was 18 years old.

Watch “Songs for Alexis” the documentary about Ryan Cassata (Copenhagen Bombay)
Ryan Cassata Becomes First Openly Transgender Performer to Play At Vans Warped Tour (The Forum)
My Bathroom Struggle As A Transgender Student (HuffPost)
Ryan Cassata Goes On Larry King (Larry King)
Ryan Cassata on The Tyra Banks Show (Handprint Entertainment)

6. Teddy Geiger

Teresa Geiger, also known by her stage name Teddy Geiger, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. She came out as a trans woman in October 2017, and has said that she “knew she was female at 5 years old.” She has also said that she intends to keep the name Teddy and use female pronouns.

7. Sam Smith

Photo from music video for “To Die For” (Capital Records)

Samuel Frederick Smith is an English singer and songwriter. The Grammy-winning singer is non-binary, identifying neither as male or female. They asked fans to use the pronouns “they/them,” not he/him.” They told Jameela Jamil during an interview on I Weigh Interviews, “I feel like I float somewhere in between.”

8. King Princess

Mikaela Mullaney Straus, known by her stage name King Princess, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician from Brooklyn, New York. She is signed to Mark Ronson’s label Zelig Records, an imprint of Columbia Records. Straus is gay and genderqueer.

“I like being a woman sometimes. I would say 49 percent of the time I love my titties. But I’m not fully a woman. I’m somebody who falls center on the gender spectrum, and it changes day to day. It’s just not in me to decide.”

Regarding their pronouns, King Princess stated to Rolling Stone in 2022 that she “never felt offended [by] the pronoun situation… He. She. It. They. Xenu.”

9. Shea Diamond

ShaGasyia “Shea” Diamond is an American singer, songwriter, and transgender rights activist. At age 20 she robbed a convenience store at gunpoint to pay for gender affirmation surgery. While incarcerated, Diamond faced discrimination specifically for her identity as a trans woman. “Get out of the caveman way of thinking,” she said. “Trans people are who they say they are, not who you want them to be.”

Her music is chiefly soul and R&B, and includes elements of blues, rock, hip-hop and folk. Shea was inspired by Whitney Houston and Tina Turner. She signed a record deal with Asylum, East West, part of the Warner Music Group.

10. Laura Jane Grace and Against Me!

“I have an inherent distrust of mankind. I think authority and government base their power on violence. I refuse to recognize anyone’s power over me.” — “Against Me!: Sunshine State”

Laura Jane Grace is an American musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!, an American punk rock band formed in 1997 in Naples, Florida. That same year, Grace moved to Gainesville, Florida, which is considered the band’s hometown.

After coming out as trans, Laura expressed that if not for the specific message she hoped to spread through their next album, the band Against Me! may not have continued. Then again, the band’s extended pandemic hiatus means she has continued in solo performances for the foreseeable future.

BONUS: This was way back in 2014 when Laura Jane Grace had something to say about cis actor Andrew Garfield playing a trans character.

Until…

11. Miley Cirus

Miley Ray Cyrus is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her music spans across varied styles and genres, including pop, country, rock, hip hop, R&B, and experimental music.

Miley identifies as gender fluid, saying: “I’m just equal. I’m just even. It has nothing to do with any parts of me or how I dress or how I look. It’s literally just how I feel.”

Miley Cyrus: Finalist for Person of the Year (Advocate)
Miley Cyrus: I Told My Mom I Love Women When I Was 14 (Yahoo)
Miley Cyrus: I love London because there are so many gay people (PinkNews)
Everything Miley Cyrus Has Said About Her Sexuality: ‘I Am Literally Open to Every Single Thing’ (People)
Dolly Parton: “…the girl can write. The girl can sing. The girl is smart. And she doesn’t have to be so drastic. But I will respect her choices. I did it my way, so why can’t she do it her way?” (Time)

12. Kim Petras

Kim Petras is a German singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. Between 2016 and 2020, she released music as an independent artist under her own imprint, BunHead Records, before signing with Amigo and Republic Records in 2021. Petras began recording music as a teenager.

Petras signed with Republic Records in 2021 and released the EP Slut Pop, her first project with Republic, the following year. Petras’s collaborative 2022 single “Unholy” with Sam Smith topped charts internationally, including the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100, making her the first openly transgender solo artist to reach number one in the United States. Petras was the first openly transgender artist to receive a Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “Unholy” on February 5, 2023 and follows transgender composer and electronic musician Wendy Carlos as one of the few transgender women to have won such an award in the academy’s history.