....Jade Starr hid behind the black uniform and aggressive snarl of heavy metal for years before swapping ferocity for femininity.
Some amazing stories of transgender Melburnians come to light during this year’s Midsumma Festival.
“Transgender people like everyone just want to be loved,” said Starr, who used to be Dave.
“A transgender person, it’s not like being gay - you’re wearing yourself in public 24 hours a day, you can’t hide it like a gay person can tone down their inflection or their voice.”
Raised in Yarraville, Starr was a teenager when she “hit a hard wall” realising she would never become a girl and began searching for a “male guide to live by”. Quite surprisingly, she found it in heavy metal.
“That culture of boys on the outside were aggressive and could come across as homophobic and violent but really those kinds of boys listened to that music in a clan of quite lost or troubled people, they felt different so they could put out that person and blend in and nobody would question it,” Starr said. “The clothing is like an armour, but there is an undercurrent of quite loving people who would do anything for each other.”
When Starr moved to Sydney to transition in 2004, her old heavy metal mates were the first ones to show support, she said.
“They had seen me doing excessive things on stage singing in death metal bands, so I guess they thought it wasn’t that shocking, they’d seen me pulling a machete out on stage to cut my arm over the years.”....
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