Choir

Someone wrote…

I’m Robe Co-Chair for my university’s Choir, and this year I’m using my position to de-gender some of the clothing norms we have in our dress attire standards.
I’m a trans*male genderqueer person, and I remember how awkward it was, when I first joined up, to see the emails with reminders of “men wear ___” or “women wear ___” before concerts and events. So in my emails, I make sure to just write “you can wear ___ on top” or “___ on bottom”. I make my pronouns known, everyone in the Choir knows I’m out, I sing Alto regularly but Tenor 1 in the Men’s Group, and I know for a fact that many people in this group (in this traditionally-conservative Southern university) would defend me to the death, as I would them. It means so much to me that because of their actions and mine, and because of the very public nature of our performances, we’re making a real dent in the latent binarism of the choral and university worlds.

And we look damn good while doing it.

What’s your experience?

And what are you thinking about gender right now?


Posted by on October 11th, 2013 at 08:00 am

Category: your voice 2 comments »

2 Responses to “Choir”

  1. Emmett

    That is awesome! I very much appreciate that kind of language whenever I see it, so thanks for using your position to include it more regularly! I am sure you all look fab, and I think it’s great that there are people in a traditionally conservative area who are so open-minded!

    [Reply]

  2. Just Another Soul

    I go to a women’s college and sing first alto in one of our choirs. Usually all of the members wear dresses, and it took a lot of courage to ask if I could wear more gender neutral clothing. The director had no problem with it and even fought for funding so I wouldn’t have to pay for it myself (because usually people borrow dresses from the school). Even better, the person who sits next to me heard me asking and got up the courage to request pants too. We got to go shopping together and are going to look super fly in our black bow-ties and vests.

    [Reply]


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