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Artist
Shea Diamond
12+ albums
rnbsoulqueertrans
about
ShaGasyia "Shea" Diamond (born March 17, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, and transgender rights activist. Her music is chiefly soul and R&B, and includes elements of blues, rock, hip-hop and folk.[2] Her songwriting ability has been described as "demonstrating a rare gift to portray raw, dynamic emotion in a way that moves the body as much as the spirit"[3] Her influences include Whitney Houston and Tina Turner. Diamond was born in Little Rock, Arkansas to a fourteen-year-old mother and was raised by relatives in Memphis, Tennessee before living most of her teenage years and adulthood in Flint, Michigan. She ran away from home at age fourteen and spent time in the foster care system before getting emancipated at seventeen. Growing up she felt immense pressure to act masculine, despite knowing early on that she identified as a woman. She was inspired to become a singer by Tina Turner and worked on her skills while directing her church choir, where she was often chastised for singing too high. At age 20 she robbed a convenience store at gunpoint to pay for gender affirmation surgery. Diamond was in and out of men's correctional facilities in Michigan between 1999 and 2009. It was in prison that she wrote her song I Am Her. While incarcerated, Diamond faced discrimination specifically for her identity as a trans woman. She was kept in protective segregation and lost privileges often to keep her away from the male population. Humiliation, isolation, and misgendering wer
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