Against Me! Singer Comes Out as Transgender
In May 2012, Tommy Gabel made a very important announcement. After living for 31 years as a man, half of that as singer/guitarist for Florida punk band Against Me!, he would be transitioning to life as a woman named Laura Jane Grace. The story of Grace's lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria was revealed in an intimate Rolling Stone profile, which also explained that Heather Gabel, Grace's wife of five years with whom she had a young daughter, was staying. The immediate public reaction was largely surprised but overwhelmingly supportive.
While the personal transition has been both challenging and liberating, as Grace described in an essay for Cosmopolitan, she says that life in the band has been in many ways business as usual. "I didn't go into it at all thinking, 'Oh, God, what is this going to do for my career?' Because that was the furthest thing from what I was scared to death about," she says. On the band's tour just one week after the article, she says it was, "totally humbling how many people would be waiting out back -- new fans and members of the LGBT community."
When asked if she's become a mentor to transgender fans or others she's met, she says, "Yeah, but it's really co-dependent. . . I need that too." Her own transition was patly inspired by metal band Life of Agony's Mina Caputo, who came out as transgender in 2011, and the mainstream success of LGBT acts like Frank Ocean and Tegan & Sara give her optimism. "It has to get to a point where it isn't even an issue because it's so commonplace," she says. -- Evie Nagy
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