Laura Jane Grace

## Biography

Laura Jane Grace was born on November 8, 1980 to parents Thomas Gabel and Bonnie Gabel. She has one younger brother who was born six years after her. Grace's father was an army major, so the family moved around a lot. Through the course of her childhood, Grace ended up living in Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Germany, and Italy. Finally, at twelve, her parents divorced, and Grace went to live in Naples, Florida with her mother.

Grace reports that her earliest memories were of gender dysphoria. She was assigned male at birth, but knew from a very young age that she was a girl. She was able to suppress and ignore these feelings throughout a large portion of her childhood, but after the divorce her dysphoria returned with a vengeance. In order to cope with her dysphoria and the bullying she experienced at school, Grace turned to drugs. She experimented with cocaine, LSD, marijuana, and alcohol, among other substances. She ended up struggling with drug addiction for years as a result. Another way Grace coped with her dysphoria was skipping school to cross-dress at home. She generally felt very guilty for doing so, and described it as a sort of "binge and purge" cycle where she'd try to appease her dysphoria and immediately feel guilty for doing so.

She also tried asking the powers that be to give her a different body. She would ask God give her "a female body," or she'd tell the devil that "[she'd] spend the rest of [her] life as a serial killer if [he turned her] into a woman."

Grace got really into punk music at about thirteen years old and began playing in punk bands. At fourteen, the police arrested her and treated her horribly for no reason other than "[she] was a dirty, grubby little punk kid with black spiky hair." This caused Grace to become an anarchist. She "think[s] authority and government base their power on violence" and "refuse[s] to recognize anyone's power over [her]," and continues to hold these beliefs.

## Against Me!

In 1997, at seventeen years old, Laura Jane Grace began the band that would catapult her to fame.Against Me! began as a solo act that was occasionally accompanied by her friend Kevin Mahon on drums. Their lyrics are highly political and leftist, which makes sense given Grace's anarchist identity. Eventually, Grace recruited a friend from high school, James Bowman, and began teaching him chords to Against Me! songs. The lineup for their first release, *Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose*, was Grace, Bowman, Dustin Fridkin (later replaced by Andrew Seward), and Warren Oakes. The band released two more albums after signing to Fat Wreck Chords,  *Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy* and *Searching for a Former Clarity*. *Searching for a Former Clarity* charted 114 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 65,000 copies. This was the beginning of Against Me!'s rise to fame.

As the band gained popularity and fame, Grace began to feel as though she was lying to her fans. She said that "with the band especially, I felt more and more like I was putting on an act – like I was being shoved into this role of 'angry white man in a punk band.'" She began to slip obscure lyrics related to being trans into Against Me! songs, but nobody picked up on them. Finally, when Against Me! signed to Sire Records, Grace swore off crossdressing and decided to present definitively as a man. She continued to present as a man for the next seven years, trying to suppress any dysphoria.

## Marriages

Grace got married in 2000 and divorced her first wife only four years later. She later got married to Heather Hannoura in 2007 and stayed married to her until 2013. They have a daughter together, Evelyn, who was born in 2009.

## Coming Out

Around the time that Heather got pregnant in 2009, Grace's dysphoria hit her incredibly hard. She realized that she couldn't continue to live as a man, and began to start the process of coming out.

During this time, she began writing the album *Transgender Dysphoria Blues*, which she told the band was a concept album. In reality, the music was at least partially based on Grace's gender identity. One day, in the studio, she told the band that she was trans. The rest of the group was surprised, but ultimately accepting of Grace's gender identity.

On May 24, 2012, Rolling Stone published an interview with Grace in which she came out as a trans woman. She explains that she felt the need to finally come out after seeing a trans Against Me! fan begin to transition. She says that she "found it so awesome and empowering," and that "it showed [her] what a coward [she] was being." As she put it: "Because if she had the courage to come out as trans – then why the fuck didn't I?"

As part of her transition process, Grace read Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. She now has a blurb on the back cover of the second edition and is mentioned in Serano's preface.

As Rolling Stone put it, "this is definitely the first time someone from such a high-profile band has come out in such a high-profile way." By deciding to transition, Laura Jane Grace gave young trans people someone to look up to. *Transgender Dysphoria Blues*, released in 2014, has become something of an iconic album for trans people. Grace also introduced many people to the concept of transgender individuals, something many cisgender people don't have a lot of experience with.

## Activism

Grace is very open about her struggles with addiction, mental health, and dysphoria. She encourages people to go get help and to deal with the issues they're facing.

To protest North Carolina’s HB2 bathroom laws, Grace burned her birth certificate on stage, saying "Goodbye, gender" as it went up in flames.

She is also an activist for LGBTQ rights, and says that politicians should be discussing LGBT issues more than they are currently.

Grace worked with a group called If You Want It, Ltd., to open up conversations about gender and gender identity. She performed at an event called Genderful, which was designed to help 6-12 year olds explore gender identity through art. When asked why she did this, she responded: "I always speak about my opinion that a lot of ignorance and bigotry and prejudices in the world stem from people being uneducated on certain things, and gender is a subject that most people are completely in the dark on." She says that she shouldn't be responsible for teaching people about gender, but that she does it anyway in an attempt to make a difference.

## Other Works

Grace also made a webseries called True Trans that documented her experiences as a trans woman. The webseries included interviews with other trans individuals as well, and was nominated for an Emmy in 2015.

Against Me! has released one more album since Grace came out, 2016's *Shape Shift With Me.*

 Laura Jane Grace also recently published a memoir called *Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout.* She used the slur as the title in an effort to reclaim it, not because she identifies with it. Grace says that, because there aren't many positive trans narratives out there, she felt like she had to be happy all the time once her transition started. Her book talks about how difficult it actually was to be out and transitioning "really fucking publicly."

## Sources

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/laura-jane-grace-a-trans-punk-rockers-fight-w438533

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-secret-life-of-transgender-rocker-tom-gabel-20120531

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/04/522581237/for-laura-jane-grace-punk-was-a-form-of-armor

http://www.huckmagazine.com/art-and-culture/music-2/laura-jane-grace-interview/

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7752247/laura-jane-grace-npr-north-carolina-hb2

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFdEl3gOIC1/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&utm\_campaign=embed\_profile\_upsell\_test

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/03/against-me-laura-jane-grace-transgender-punk

https://www.altpress.com/features/entry/laura\_jane\_grace\_gender\_identity\_interview

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura\_Jane\_Grace