Georgie Fruit Revisited

More than a decade ago I created a songwriting persona named Georgie Fruit to help me escape from my chemical depression and neurosis. I wanted to become something glamorous and playful because I was suicidal and miserable. I wanted this character to be as far removed from my real life as possible. So many of my heroes are Black musicians and artists, so I made my writing persona Black. This writing persona was also Trans. Inhabiting this Trans persona actually helped me discover that -even before I knew the term for it- I have always identified as Non Binary.

At the time I had no idea the extent to which Black Trans people are victimized in this country and throughout the world. I definitely did not realize that I could have been contributing to this harm just by playing a character in my head. I didn’t have a lot of personal knowledge of Black Trans life so I relied on cheap tropes to breathe life into the character. The problem is that these tropes and stereotypes created a gross mischaracterization of Black Trans life to the point that it could seem like mockery.

It’s important to me that people understand that I'm cognizant of what is problematic about Georgie Fruit. I apologize to anyone who was hurt or misrepresented by Georgie. It definitely wasn’t my intention to create more pain in the world, especially for our most vulnerable friends. I regret giving Georgie a race and gender, and I know now that the term She-Male is a deeply offensive slur to Trans people so I have decided to remove that lyric from my song “Wicked Wisdom” on all future pressings and streaming sites.

Obviously so much has changed since the early 2000s, and I’ve changed with it. I’m happy to see the way things have changed, even if this new perspective casts a harsh light on my past mistakes.

-Kevin