About A Girl Laura Jane Grace came from Naples, F.L.A. DIY’d her way across the U.S.A. Plucked her eyebrows on the way, shaved her legs, and then he was a she. NEEDLE talks Transgender Dysphoria Blues with Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace, formerly known as Tom Gabel.
story by jonathan valania photo by drew reynolds
in 2012, tom gabel, the then 31-year-old
frontman for Florida-based million-dollar majorlabel punk band Against Me!, announced to the world that he was transgender and had begun the process of transitioning into a woman. Tom Gabel was dead, long live Laura Jane Grace. Grace tells NEEDLE she knew, deep down, since the age of five, that she been had miscast in the role of heterosexual boy in the play of life. After years of drug-and-alcohol-abetted denial and crossdressing behind a cruel veil of secrecy and shame, Grace realized she could no longer deny her true nature, consequences be damned, and summoning a courage far beyond most mortal men (and women), she went public with her decision. This raised a host of difficult questions that are still being answered. How would her wife, daughter, mother and retired Army major father—not to mention her bandmates and Against Me!’s six-figure-sized audience—react to the news? Almost without exception (her father being the exception), everyone was understanding and supportive, but like her transition, it’s a work in progress. She documented her epic struggles with gender identity and the triumphs and travails of the transition process on Against Me!’s extraordinary self-released new album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues. needle
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