LCD Soundsystem’s Gavin Russom Comes Out as Trans
Gavin Russom, the synth player for LCD Soundsystem, has come out as trans in a new interview with Pitchfork.
"Over the last year and a half, I went from my trans identity being something I was in touch with and worked through in one way or another, to suddenly this shift where it’s on the front burner. Now it's time to become a whole person," she explained.
After Russom finished recording and touring with the band last year she "took time off to focus on her own self-care, ultimately finding support in New York City’s large and diverse community of trans women."
Now Russom has debuted “a new photo that reflects how I feel comfortable expressing myself, feminine pronouns, and I'm using my old name.”
Russom is known as part of LCD Soundsystem and now as the band prepares to headline the Pitchfork Music Festival, the night before their show, on
July 13, Russom will DJ publicly for the first time as a trans woman at Femme's Room, a monthly dance party celebrating femme and queer culture.
Even before Russom came out as trans Femme's Room organizers had asked her to DJ the event and Russom took that as a sign.
"Having not said anything about my gender identity or transition, it felt like this amazing synchronicity,” she told Pitchfork. “One of those moments where the universe is tapping you on the shoulder, [saying], ‘It's OK, it's real.’”
LCD Soundsystem will release their new album, American Dream, in September but Russom told Grindr's Into that she "could not imagine" touring for the next year and pretending to be someone she is not: “My body rejected it in the same way that it now utterly rejects going into a men’s bathroom or when somebody calls me ‘sir.'"
Russom reveals that the general feeling from her fellow members of LCD Soundsystem is that her being open about being trans "will make the band better."
“This is my fifth decade being alive and in each of those decades, there’s been a time where I’ve tried to say, ‘Hey, I think I’m transgender!’ This was even before that word existed," Russom explains.
"To some degree I wish I had been able to work through it sooner, but I'm also very glad that I worked it the way I did. Having gone through 42 and a half years of being in denial and trying to work through this stuff has given me a lot of experience."
