Screenshot: Instagram / Gavin Russom

LCD Soundsystem’s 43-year-old synth player, Gavin Russom came out as transgender, telling Pitchfork on Thursday, “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.”


Russom goes on to discuss her decision to come out now at some length. The entire statement is definitely worth reading, but here’s a snippet:

“The major experience has been one of things falling into place, things that maybe seemed incongruous about my life. Suddenly, as I started to accept the reality, it started to make more sense—like, ‘Oh, OK, that’s what that was. Oh, that’s how this period of my life connects to this other period.’ Maybe the most important kernel is realizing that being a transgender person is really a real thing. It’s not any of the things that I think people who don’t have this experience tend to frame it as.”


In another interview, with Grindr, Russom said that from a young age she identified, “along the feminine spectrum.”

“This is my fifth decade being alive,” Russom told Grindr, “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.”

“It gives me hope for the future,” Russom goes on, “to see the courage and creativity of a much younger generation of trans women.”