(RNS) — When Sasha Allen, a trans singer, sat down to write his first release after going independent, he thought he was going to write an “eff-off” song. But the song he ended up writing, with its reflections on religious transphobia, had a different sentiment.
In “When I Forgive You,” which released Saturday (March 29), Allen imagines religious people walking back their beliefs on transgender people “at the pearly gates” and questions the level of vitriol such beliefs have provoked.
“I find it strange to hold such hatred for a stranger,” Allen, 23, sings in a rollicking song with acoustic guitar and harmonica. But then his lyrics take a turn.
“You’ll find it strange when I hold kindness to your anger. I find it strange, this shape you mold me into. You’ll find it strange when I forgive you.”
Allen’s 1.5 million TikTok followers heard the first clip of the song in the week after President Donald Trump’s inauguration and his executive order defining sex as binary and immutable. The song seeks to remind the listener of the everyday humanity of trans people.
“I’m not an act of revolution that you’re watching on the news. I bet you …