music business and self-identify as LGBTQ share their most recent professional
determination to see doors open wider — for the benefit of the entire creative community
Rosenberg (left) and Tranter
photographed by Noah
We b b o n J u l y 5 a t A k b a r in
Los Angeles. Find out how
Tranter wrote their biggest
hits at billboard.com/videos.
Aaron Rosenberg
PARTNER
Myman Greenspan Fox
Rosenberg Mobasser
Younger & Light
Justin Tranter
SONGWRITER, CO-PARTNER
Facet Records
(Warner Records)
Tranter, 39, is the hitmaking,
nonbinary songwriter with recent
co-writes on Ariana Grande’s
Thank U, Next and the soundtrack to
A Star Is Born. They are also the co-
founder (with Katie Vinten) of Facet
Records, a partnership with Warner
Records. Rosenberg, 42, is the legal
wiz whose clients include Grande,
Tranter, Troye Sivan and RuPaul.
The duo — whose client-attorney
relationship dates back 10 years
to when Tranter fronted glam-rock
band Semi Precious Weapons — are
both passionate LGBTQ advocates.
Together, the two Midwesterners
were key galvanizing forces behind
the charity single “Hands” following
the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting
in Orlando, Fla.
When coming out, “I was lucky
professionally to have an early
support network in [fellow law
firm colleagues] Eric Greenspan
and Jeffrey Light, and a client base
that truly supported me,” says
Rosenberg. “But I get great pleasure
from advocating for clients and
people who feel ‘other,’ because
for so much of my life I felt like that
growing up in Kansas City, Mo.”
Tranter says they didn’t realize
that “the doors closed to me and
my Semi Precious Weapons
bandmembers, [who are] straight,
[resulted] from homophobia and
femmephobia. I look at where
we’re at now and see queer people
thriving. But we still need a lot
more of us thriving.”
Rosenberg sees encouraging
signs ahead: “I don’t represent
Lil Nas X,” he says, “but what it
means for a black queer artist to
triumph in a genre like country
— and other genres as well — is
a story that needs to be told for
generations to come.”
Still, the doors need to open
wider, says Tranter. “We need to be
signing more queer artists, queer
writers and queer producers, and
hiring more queer executives.
“The music business likes to
think of itself as very progressive
and open-minded,” they add. “But
I still hear things all the time like,
‘[This artist is] such an amazing
singer but is someone really going
to stream records from a queer
femme person of color?’ I’m living
proof that my ideas — my queer
ideas — are mainstream ideas.
There are thousands more queer
people who deserve to have their
ideas heard on the largest platforms
possible.” —GAIL MITCHELL