The Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus was a
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
-based non-audition chorus that supported the
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...
community through music, outreach, and research. Founded in 2014 by
Sandi Hammond, faculty member at the
New School of Music in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...
. It is thought to have been the second transgender choir in the nation, the first being the
Transcendence Gospel Choir of
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. The chorus held its first public performance on April 9, 2015, at the
First Church in Boston.
During the following two years, the chorus received a large amount of local and nation media attention, garnering stories in ''
O, The Oprah Magazine
''O, The Oprah Magazine'', also known simply as ''O'', is an American monthly magazine founded by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Communications.
Overview
It was first published on April 19, 2000. , its average paid circulation was ...
'', Local and National
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
stations,
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
and others.
The Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus does not exist anymore. After two sold-out debut concerts in downtown Boston, Hammond stepped down in October 2016. during an intense debate about the impact of media exposure on the group and also the fact that she herself is not trans. A small group of volunteers continued a self-led, volunteer song-circle for several months under the new name, Boston Trans Chorus.
The Butterfly Music Transgender Chorus has sparked the creation of similar groups in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Kansas City, and Manchester, New Hampshire.
References
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Transgender organizations in the United States
LGBT choruses
Organizations based in Boston
2014 establishments in Massachusetts
Choirs in Massachusetts