Melissa Moore, better known as Absu guitarist Vis Crom, posted a statement to her Facebook today decrying the Trump administrations efforts to define gender as "the sex listed on a person's birth certificate" and roll back transgender rights. Her statement reads:

ACHTUNG! Most of you know me from my time as Vis Crom of Absu, even though I probably didn’t look like a Melissa then. I am a transgender woman. If you live in the USA I ask all true heavy metal brothers and sisters to NOT VOTE FOR REPUBLICAN SCUM on Nov 6. They are initiating a literal inquisition against trans people. I hate politics and never post but this is real and desperate. This is not politics, this is an attempt to exterminate. Word on the street is trans aggressively are being viciously attacked physically and denied documents (like passport renewals) to even flee this dystopia. I intend be a knife to the throat of these evangelical scum, but I can’t fight alone

Thank you for your time. We are all on the same team. Sex, Drinks and Metal for life!!! 666

A screenshot of the statement began making the rounds on Twitter by @AtDawnTheyTweet and Blackened Death Records founder Richard Weeks (who just released the Worldwide Organization of Metalheads Against Nazis II compilation), along with a screenshot of Melissa commenting in a closed group saying "I lost my band when I came out to them last year." Someone replied asking, "Did you just simply leave Absu or were you asked to leave? And are you still in Rumpelstiltskin Grinder?" Melissa responded, "It's a long story and today is a busy day, but basically the most fucked up transphobia from my bandmates is what happened. The band is broken up and I am still at a loss on how to handle it. It is ONLY because I am trans. RSG doesn't play often but we are still tight!" Absu has yet to respond.

Update: The screenshots are now deleted from Twitter at Melissa's request, and Melissa reached out to tell us there was a typo in what she wrote and asked if we could fix it, which we did. The previous version said "It isn't ONLY because I am trans," when it should have read "It is ONLY because I am trans."