Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, vocalist and guitarist of the New York black metal outfit Liturgy, has come out as transgender.

"I am a woman. I've always been one," she wrote in a post on her Instagram. "The love I have to give is a woman's love, if only because it is mine. To varying degrees many already understand this, but I'd like to make a clear statement about my actual gender."

Hunt-Hendrix confessed that she knew she was a woman before starting Liturgy, but did not come out as transgender due to fear of rejection from her friends, family and the metal world. "The music and ideas I compose come from a female heart, whatever that means, and I don't want to partially distort the transmission through an 'effeminate male' mask any longer," she continued.

"Through a long-developing process I've finally broken free from some kind of compromise I felt I needed to accept, without being fully conscious of what I was doing or able to seriously imagine an alternative for myself. It has been very emotional, and it's over now, so I am punctuating it."

Read her full statement below.

Liturgy's 2020 tour in support of their fourth studio album H.A.Q.Q. was postponed due to the coronavirus, but as per another post on Hunt-Hendrix's Instagram, it has been rescheduled for late summer. See the dates here.

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