After a sex change for its singer, Against Me! returns reinvigorated
by Bryan C. Reed @BryanCReed
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/after-a-sex-change-for-its-singer-against-me-returns-reinvigorated/Content?oid=3799229&utm_content=bufferca594&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=bufferFor 15 years, Against Me! has often seemed a vehicle built for overcoming obstacles.
On the journey from scrappy folk-punk solo project to club-packing, major-label rock band, Against Me! faced consistent crises: van crashes, label woes, lineup changes, near breakups.
But the most dramatic change Against Me! has encountered seems to have had the least effect, the largely positive publicity it generated notwithstanding: In 2012, lead singer Tom Gabel announced via a lengthy Rolling Stone feature that he was transgender. He was starting his life as Laura Jane Grace.
While rock stars have long toyed with gender boundaries, and cult figures such as first-generation punk rocker Jayne County served as precedents, Grace is the first high-profile rock musician to come out as transgender in the midst of fame. Longtime fans began poring through old Gabel lyrics for retrospective clues, including this line from the band's 2007 breakout, New Wave: "If I could have chosen/ I would have been born a woman/ My mother once told me she would have named me Laura."
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What an annoying headline!
