Metal Vocalist Comes Out as Trans Woman

The vocalist and guitarist for Australian alternative metal band The Mark of Cain has come out as a trans woman, calling the experience of coming out a “liberating” one.

Josie Scott, who co-founded the band with her brother, Kim Scott, in 1984, announced the news in a Facebook post on Feb. 2, writing that she would try to “get straight to the point with little or no bulls—t.”

“As I’ve aged, and mortality is ever closer, I’ve decided to embrace, rather than endure, who I am,” Josie, 63, wrote.

“I’ve struggled with what is called gender dysphoria my whole life, since I was about 8 years old,” she continued, “and I always assumed I’d just live my life, complain a lot, and die leaving some clues in my songs and journals for family to read and think ‘oohaahh what a very strange (albeit talented) person.”

“My internal conflict and struggles were inherently responsible for my searching for a way to exist, but still accept, some of the futility I saw in my life,” Josie wrote. “So, I often wrote about being an outsider, about feeling a little different and the idea of trying to push through no matter how dire you felt things were, to embrace the crap and try make it through life.”

It’s those same ideas that made their way into the band’s 1995 album Ill at Ease.

It wasn’t until Jose got sick during the COVID pandemic that she began to “reevaluate how I felt about growing old, navigating sickness, and whether when the time came to leave earth, I could do so, with no regrets.”

“I knew I would always regret not having the courage of my convictions to live my life,” she shared, revealing that “seeing so many young people now able to embrace who they are and live authentically without as much bulls—t as existed when I was young helped shine a light on the possibility that maybe I can finally be me in my autumn years.”

While The Mark of Cain was often interpreted as a “very masculine, testosterone driven band,” which Josie said “greatly acted as a way of being as a ‘beard’” for her, “much of what was interpreted as masculine was often being generated from my internal rage about my own dissatisfaction about myself and the paralysis I felt in being unable to live as me.”

“It’s been liberating to finally live as myself albeit challenging at the same time, but the happiness I feel outweighs any obstacles I’ve faced so far,” she shared. “My family and close friends know me as Josie, Jo for short, and given where I identify on the gender spectrum, I fit within the paradigm of being a trans woman.”

Josie concluded that she felt “real fans of the band” would “understand the difficulty I’ve faced, of feeling different, and being on the outside” and “be ok with my announcement.”

She also assured that “absolutely nothing” would change when it came to The Mark of Cain’s music. “We’ll continue to write, record and perform hard heavy music and I may look a little more androgynous but everything else remains the same,” she added, signing off, “As ever, thanks for listening.”