So I have been struggling to focus on a topic to write the next article about and it occurred to me that I have never properly introduced myself… in this timeline nor in the last! I will explain within:-)

My name is Melissa Hirst. aka Mel Hirst, aka Mel Mayhem.

This has all been SINCE my Social Transition; Male to Female.

I have explained a lot in my article What It Is to be Transgender (❤by Melissa Hirst❤) – Transgender Life and Wellness about the feelings related to growing up with Gender Dysphoria, but I had not shared my personal experiences… a kind of “get to know me” if you will!

I grew up in Colorado after moving here very young in the 1980’s. During this time I had not known that there were issues surrounding my birth or my given name, this would come later.

I did know that I had many emotional issues spanning from Rage to severe depression… and just though that I was not skilled at hiding these, that everyone dealt with this. I would later find out that this was the onset of monthly cycle but I had not had the privilege of learning this in my early teens with all of the other girls.

So with these issues I quickly learned to channel them into the most brutal and daredevil ways trying to be the Alpha of all of my friends. Motocross, Super Arena Cross, Mixed Martial Arts, Weapons, and SEVERE PARTYING. I had been admitted into the hospital many times with Overdose or Suicide attempt fallout… A very reckless way to live. But I really did not care at that time.

In the early 2000s I found a very dangerous part of Highway 285 in Colorado (Kenosha Pass) and drove my car off of the side at over 100mph trying to (win) end the constant internal struggle. This left me with a broken back in multiple places, most of my ribs broken and brain bleed.

The recovery from this lasted for what seemed to be a lifetime, also leaving me with an over 700 pill/ month pain killer habit. I feel like I was trying to self-medicate the pre-existing issues that had driven me (pun intended) to destroy my car and most of my body.

Years later after learning of my intersex status and coming out to the world as Transgender to live the life that I was meant to live I lost the family life that I had known. I will revisit this in a future post; I am not ready to talk about that publicly at this time.

After (or possibly part of) my recovery from this I put a previously abandoned music group project back together from years earlier. Top Tracks – Nuclear Applepants – YouTube was born! This was a Hard Rock Band, but as a Transgender Front woman I believe that it was before (or possibly after) it’s time.

With this label I had attracted the attention of Madonna ‘s first and launching manager Camille Barbone. Her assistant had messaged me wanting to set up a phone call to last about 10-15 minutes. On the day that I first met Camille this phone call lasted close to an hour! She agreed to represent, coach and mentor me as she is also a part of the LGBTQ+ community and had an interest in seeing this project succeed.

Under Camille’s direction we wrote and released further music under the Applepants label and started to slowly attract a following. I had contacted Jeremy Stern at Mile High Behavioral Health Centers asking if I could donate a song and corresponding music video to Transgender Center of the Rockies.

NUCLEAR APPLEPANTS: Voice of Treason – Was born! We donated this music video and the song spring of 2020 and was invited to perform Center Stage at 2020 Denver Pride for an estimated audience of over 100k people! I feel like this would have gotten the word out, however there was an entity that would present a fatal challenge to this song and to Nuclear Applepants.

Covid 19 shut down the possibilities of 2020 Denver Pride Festival and this song would not take off. It DID however see approximately 42 thousand people who had tuned in to the live Broadcast of Voice of Treason during the Virtual version of 2020 Denver Pride. Most of the comments were mainly negative that the video should have had a trigger warning as I was murdered at the beginning of it. But the reason behind the song and the video were to spread awareness involving the harsh reality that many Transgender People face every single day.

I was contacted the week following the airing and alerted to the fact that Denver City Counsel was speaking of banning LGBTQ+ “Panic” Defense | The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association which WAS SUCCESSFUL in the weeks following the airing of Voice of Treason in Denver, but also had banned this defense in 3 other states! This is a HUGE step in protecting the RIGHT TO LIVE for Transgender People. EDUCATION IS KEY PEOPLE!!

After this project had settled down I came to the reality that most of the LGBTQ+ community would never accept me as a lead vocalist for a Hard Rock/ Metal band; and the Rock/ Metal community would never accept a Transgender Lead Vocalist no matter how catchy the music or interesting the videos may be.

So as of late 2020 I have changed my label from Nuclear Applepants to Melissa Hirst Music🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 , and also am still active as (2) Mel Mayhe | Facebook REBRANDING AND AS OF THE DATE OF THIS ARTICLE WORKING ON NEW GENRE (POP/ DANCE POP) as I feel like it will be more aligned with my audience, friends and the ART THAT COMES FROM THE LOVE IN MY HEART!!

So please visit, follow and give a like!

AS ALWAYS LOVE ALL OF YA!!!❤❤🤗🤗❤❤

Mel