Against Me!'s sixth studio album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, was released on January 21, 2014.
"Grace publicly came out as transgender in May 2012, announcing plans to transition to living as a woman. Having been inspired to come out after meeting a transgender Against Me! fan, Grace had informed the rest of the band that February."
"I kind of reached a point where there was nothing else that I could really write about and focus on other than transsexual topic matter – whether those are stories of fiction or my own emotions writing it – I couldn't really write about anything else." So she sat down with her wife, and told her the truth.
Did it mean, Heather asked, Grace would leave her? Once reassured, Heather's support was so unconditional – so miraculous, so transformative – that three days later Grace found herself blurting out her secret to the band. "And straight away, I was completely terrified. What the fuck did I just do? Why did I do that? But I think I was just on a roll. I called my wife and said: 'I just totally told everyone, and I don't know why.'"
"But they were completely cool with it."
"I don't give a fuck if I lose my penis. It's just fucking scary because of the surgery. I've needed to have my wisdom teeth removed for five years, and I still haven't."[3] She has said in a May 2012 interview with Rolling Stone that she would live as a woman and undergo psychotherapy for a year before considering full sex reassignment surgery: "Right now, I'm in this awkward transition period. I look like a dude, and feel like a dude, and it sucks. But eventually I'll flip, and I'll present as female."
"I guess, in a way, I'm thankful for the secrecy now, because it helped to develop an imagination. Creatively, you live in your own world, so it focused me in that way, and I'm thankful to be the person that I am from that."
"longtime fan Jimmy Gomez, 23, doesn't think Grace needs to explain anything.
"She did it for herself, not for anybody else. This is about her," he said. "She's doing something she really loves now and she's really happy – that's really awesome."
"Grace doesn't look like a woman, but then she only began taking hormones a month ago. There's a subtle feminity in her posture, though, and in the way her features soften as she talks. The twin impressions of apprehension and an eagerness to please are for a moment disconcerting – until you see just how extraordinary it must be to start telling a total stranger about the very thing she's been keeping secret for most of her life."
"Grace's first intimation of gender dysphoria came when she was just five years old. "The first time I had that moment, when I knew, was seeing Madonna on a televised concert. And I thought: 'Why not me?'"
"I really support her in being able to come out to everyone," said Maddie Leyland, 18. "I'm excited to see what happens to the band, too, what they all do with it."
"Herndon Graddick, President of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, hoped that Grace's public profile would increase public awareness and acceptance of transgender people: "Tom is displaying extraordinary courage by coming out as transgender after already establishing herself as a rock star. For many of the band's fans, this may be the first time they're actually thinking about transgender people and the bravery it sometimes takes in order to be true to yourself."
sources:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/against-me-s-tom-gabel-makes-live-debut-as-laura-jane-grace-in-san-diego-20120526#ixzz2sMWjJ2Dy
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/jul/22/laura-jane-grace-transsexual
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Jane_Grace
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