Brony musician Forest Rain comes out as transgender

[Dark Qiviut 22,606]

 

Forest Rain is one of the brony fandom's most known musicians. Widely known for her sincerity, generosity, optimism, and simply being a role model to other people. Her signature song, Great to Be Different, was inspired by a letter she got while at BronyCon Summer 2012, which said "Isn't it great to be different? Love, Derpy." (BTW, GtBD is my favorite song to come out of the fandom, and I highly recommend listening to it if you haven't.) She would later meet the female brony who gave her the letter (funnily, FR met her as she was locked out of her car), and they got engaged at BronyCon 2013.

 

You notice that I'm using female pronouns to reference Forest Rain instead of male as before. Tonight, she came out as a transgender woman, and she described the process during the last year, including her gender dysphoria.

 

---

 

Shortly after watching the video, I replied to her on YouTube with this response:

I've always respected you as a fantastic musician and even more as a person for several years as a result of your sincerity, generosity, and inspiration. With you coming out as transgender, I respect you even more.

It takes a lot of courage to come out, and I, as an ally, am proud of you. Like the main moral in your signature song, what makes you great, Forest Rain, is who you are. The fact that you're yourself is what will always give you the most support. You're a role model to many bronies here, and your courage is only going to resonate to everyone who loves and cares for you, from your fans to your family to both the brony and LGBT communities altogether. ^__^ /)

Edited February 6, 2015 by Old King Q

[CC_Maud_Pie 6,431]

I'm proud of her for being honest about her gender identity. Nothing else I can say here.

[Jeric 46,884]

Forest Rain is one of my favorite fandom musicians, and I absolutely love Great to be Different. The song now has a deeper message and will likely resonate more when I listen to it. That does take an immense amount of courage. /) to her. 

 

I do have more to say on this, because that song in particular is important to me. 

[Yummychickenblue 303]

'Ve actually never heard of Forest Rain beyond seeing that PMV of GtBD. Also I think we can all agree the mare designs look better than the stallion designs

[alpinefroggy 451]

Good for her to come out. I Find it exceedingly stupid that such things are treated with disdain in society but am very happy she had the courage to come out

[Moonlight 7,291]

I'm really glad she came out, and if anyone's opinions on her changed because of it then good riddance. It takes a lot of courage and honesty to admit your own gender identity and I can only respect her as both a musician and as a person. 

[1111 1,284]

I may not be able to relate to these kind of things but I wish her the best intentions and support. 

[Redstreak 45]

It takes a lot of courage to open up about issues like this. Wishing her the absolute best in life

[NavelColt 22,883]

Never heard of her, strangely. But it's great for her to have done so.

[Scream Lucid Dream 103]

WOOOOOO! YEAH! You go there, you crazy pony gal!!

 

(I am tg and I always feel overjoyed when someone has the courage to come out.)

 

Great To Be Different was a major factor in my decision to become a brony. I do not know Forest Rain personally but she is my favourite brony musician ever. <3

[PROJECT: Simon 3,955]

That video made me cry. Makes me sad. Now I know that she's honest and she's a really good musician!

[Koukatsu 5,899]

Hey, good for her. Whatever makes her happy. I wish her and Rebecca the best.

To each their own, and all that.

[Freewave 1,145]

I'm very glad she felt comfortable enough to make that decision and to announce it. I've met many transgender musicians through the mlp community and sometimes that's a public decision or it can sometimes be a hidden private decision that never gets announced. In a few cases I've seen some announce a switch and later recant.

 

But either way the most important thing we can do is offer them our continued support in whatever choice they make and keep this a loving and welcoming community that's ahead of the curve in dealing with these issues. 

[Eloquence 2,076]

I had actually never heard of her before seeing this post, but a brony song titled "Great to Be Different" sounds very much like the sort of thing I would want to listen to. Regardless, I am very proud of her, and very happy that she has taken such a big step to embracing herself for all of who she is.

 

It's just like she said, it really is great to be different!

[Scrubbed user 3,417]

(I've only just now gotten to this, so this may seem a little slowpoke.)

 

Back in 2012 when I first heard Great to be Different, I was moved by the message that it conveys. Afterwards, the Great to be Different website and the community video of the song was released. It had reminded me that this fandom is truly great.

 

After hearing that Forest Rain has come out as transgender, I was reminded of the message the song carries. For me, this whole thing reminds me that none of us are "normal". We're all the same, it's just the qualities of our being that makes us unique, different, from one another. If I could ever meet Forest Rain and her fiance, I would want to hug both of them.

 

And that, is why it's great to be different.

[KatonRyu 1,036]

Honestly it's kind of sad that today this still needs to be a big thing. Somewhere down the line we as a species seem to have taken a wrong turn into small-mindedness which causes people to hide their true natures.

 

Don't get me wrong, I applaud the courage it takes to come out like this, but it shouldn't have to be a courageous thing anymore.

 

On the other hand, and please don't be offended by this because I really don't intend it that way, but I don't think being 'different' should be a status symbol. Your nature is your nature. Being proud of it is absolutely fine, but don't let your gender define you.

 

Whether you're a woman trapped in the body of a man, or homosexual, asexual or anything else, it's awesome and you shouldn't have to fear judgement for it, but I don't think it's a good thing to let just that small facet of your life become the whole thing. People are more than their gender and sexuality, and I think they should act like it.

 

Disclaimer: Before reading this post I knew nothing about Forest Rain or the song It's Great To Be Different. I still don't, and I'm certainly not saying this is a cry for attention. Again, I applaud the courage it takes to come out like this, but I wish courage wouldn't be necessary for this kind of thing anymore.

[Justin_Case001 4,934]

Honestly it's kind of sad that today this still needs to be a big thing. Somewhere down the line we as a species seem to have taken a wrong turn into small-mindedness which causes people to hide their true natures.

 

Don't get me wrong, I applaud the courage it takes to come out like this, but it shouldn't have to be a courageous thing anymore.

 

On the other hand, and please don't be offended by this because I really don't intend it that way, but I don't think being 'different' should be a status symbol. Your nature is your nature. Being proud of it is absolutely fine, but don't let your gender define you.

 

Whether you're a woman trapped in the body of a man, or homosexual, asexual or anything else, it's awesome and you shouldn't have to fear judgement for it, but I don't think it's a good thing to let just that small facet of your life become the whole thing. People are more than their gender and sexuality, and I think they should act like it.

 

Disclaimer: Before reading this post I knew nothing about Forest Rain or the song It's Great To Be Different. I still don't, and I'm certainly not saying this is a cry for attention. Again, I applaud the courage it takes to come out like this, but I wish courage wouldn't be necessary for this kind of thing anymore.

I was just about to make a post saying almost this exact same thing.  You took the words right out of my mouth (even the disclaimer).

 

When I read the title of this thread, my response was, "Okay.  So?"  That's it.  But again, just like KatonRyu said, I applaud and respect the courage, but wish that it didn't need to be a big deal anymore.  I know we still have a very long way to go, but I hope that at some point in human existence, we can get to a point where LGBTs (and bronies for that matter) don't need to "come out," because literally nobody cares, and it's not a big deal at all.  That's the phase we want to get to someday, and at that point people can just focus on celebrating their talents and their personalities without all this flim flam about being afraid to be true to themselves.

[Malinter 3,064]

Good for her. Some people have a hard time coming out with this sort of thing, some don't, but hopefully things will get better for her from here on.

[Monsoon 1,662]

I think it's good that's she's getting to where she wants to go in life I'm also in the middle of my transition which is having all sort of effects on me but I'm happy that forest rains happy

[Sceethe 704]

i´ve always loved Forest Rains music, more a fan of "join the herd" than "great to be different" myself, though.

(this gives the song a whole different meaning though, doesnt it?^^)

 

I´ve always thought that gender and sexuality are still waaaaaay to big of a deal in today´s society(probably won´t be as much in a few centuries,), a person shouldn´t be jugded by that.

Forest Rain is still gonna be the same person, and will still make cool music for all of us to enjoy, so all the best to her.

I do have to say that it´ll take me some time to get used to her new voice,though.^^