Some transgender and nonbinary people may want to change their voices. Gender-affirming vocal coaches are there to help

Gender-affirming vocal coaches have backgrounds in speech therapy, vocal performance or other types of vocal practices, and use their expertise to help people change the quality of their voices in a safe and sustainable way.

Think about all the ways you show the world who you are. How you dress, how you look, what you prefer to be called, who you spend your time with, even how you sound — they all convey your specific identity. When transgender people are exploring ways to share their true selves with the world, they often think about these things on a deeper level. Something as simple as the voice they were born with may not sound or feel right. It may not reflect the real them. This is where gender-affirming vocal coaches come in. These professionals have backgrounds in speech therapy, vocal performance or other types of vocal practices, and use their expertise to help people change the quality of their voices in a safe and sustainable way. For some transgender, nonbinary or gender nonconforming people, a new voice is a gateway to a new kind of self-expression. Kevin Dorman is the owner of Prismatic Speech Services in Greensboro, North Carolina. Their path to the highly specialized world of gender-affirming vocal coaching began with a love of performance, and at the suggestion of their high school theater teacher, they took up speech language pathology in college. After exploring their own gender identity, Dorman realized a few years later that they were trans. The pieces started falling into place for Dorman.