Is nothing sacred?
Via Daily Mail
History was made at the Oakland Athletics stadium this week when a transgender woman sang the national anthem at a professional sporting event for the first time ever in the country.
Classically-trained opera singer Breanna Sinclaire took the mic at the O.co Coliseum for a sold out game between the A’s and the San Diego Padres on Wednesday.
Sinclaire had a 30,000 audience at the A’s LGBT Pride Night as she belted out the Star-Spangled Banner, and that wasn’t counting the people who were watching the game on television.
‘The biggest audience I’ve had before is 1,000,’ she told the San Francisco Chronicle before the game. ‘So you see where the nerves come from.’
Just years earlier, Sinclaire had been homeless.
The singer was studying at a small conservative Christian college in Canada when she was truly able to embrace her gender identity, Sinclaire told Out Magazine.
But it was a decision not supported by her peers, and soon her family disowned her as well.
Sinclaire lived on the streets of New York for several months before she was saved by her talent, landing a spot at the famous California Institute of the Arts before she became the first transgender graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s classical voice program.
The singer, who began transitioning her senior year, battled both the changes hormone therapy brought on her voice and struggles to afford the surgery she needed.
In 2013 Sinclaire hosted a benefit concert dubbed ‘Opera’s Greatest Tits’ and raised $8,500. She completed sexual reassignment surgery two months ago, which she said has made her more confident performing female roles in operas.