gavin-russom

Gavin Russom of LCD Soundsystem comes out as transgender

gavin-russom
(photo via Gavin’s Facebook)

Gavin Russom, who currently plays in LCD Soundsystem but has been a DFA Records mainstay with Black Meteoric Star, The Crystal Ark and other projects, has come out as trangender. She shared her experience in frank interviews with both INTO and Pitchfork:

I’m 43 and I can identify that once a decade, I made a concerted effort to make my trans identity known. That includes a period of time when I was a child in the ’70s, when I was going through puberty in the ’80s, and then several periods throughout my twenties, thirties, and forties. What makes this time different is that I’m in a stable moment in my life. Working with LCD Soundsystem all last year and then having a solid block of time off to focus on self-care was really important for me. This is what came out of that. I don’t like coming out so much as a term, but sometimes it’s the only way to say it.

I think the most helpful thing was talking to people with different transgender experiences, especially those with upbringings, economic circumstances, and ethnic backgrounds different than my own. It allowed me to hear all these different perspectives and see the ways in which the trans experience is so varied and so individual. But also, there are certain things that seem to be common threads.

There may be people who are fans of either LCD or of my own music who really don’t have any experience with these things. It’s so easy to develop prejudices when you’ve never encountered a person in whatever group you’re prejudiced against. I hope there’s an opportunity to be of service and share my experience [in a way that’s] true to the music.

Read Gavin’s whole interview with Pitchfork.

Gavin has been stealing the show at LCD Soundsystem shows since their return, and they play Pitchfork next weekend. Right before that she’ll appear at Chicago’s Berlin on July 13 as part of the Femme’s Room party and the flyer for that is below.

FemmesRoom-poster-June2017-poster-1