Jun 19 2012 7:03 AM EDT 193
Laura Jane Grace: A Life Unburdened
In first interview since announcing she's transgender, Against Me! singer talks with MTV News about painful past, new life and future of her band.
By James Montgomery
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1687702/laura-jane-grace-tom-gabel-against-me-interview.jhtmlThis is the story of a woman named Laura Jane Grace, who was born in the body of a boy named Tommy Gabel, and spent the next 31 years of her life trying to get out.
It starts a long time ago, back when Gabel was 4 or 5 years old and had just watched a televised performance by Madonna. It was the moment Laura first let herself be known, when the boy who spent skinned-kneed summers dressed as a cowboy or Superman realized she was not actually a boy at all. And not surprisingly, given her strict upbringing on military bases across the South (Gabel's father is a retired Army major), she didn't understand how to process this rather pertinent bit of new information. All she knew was that, for the first time in her life, she felt somehow different.
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WATCH: Trans Singer Says She's Identified With Madonna Since Childhood
BY Jeremy Kinser
June 18 2012 7:53 PM ET
http://www.advocate.com/arts-entertainment/music/2012/06/18/watch-trans-singer-says-shes-identified-madonna-childhoodTransgender musician Laura Jane Grace says she was mesmerized by Madonna as a child and identified with her on two levels—as a performer and as a female, during an interview with MTV News.
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Against Me! singer Lauren Jane Grace in first television interview since coming out as transgender
Grace - formerly Tom Gabel - tells MTV saying she's transsexual 'is the most empowering thing I've ever felt'
By Ethan Sacks / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, June 18, 2012, 6:21 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/singer-lauren-jane-grace-television-interview-coming-transgender-article-1.1098020Against Me! singer Lauren Jane Grace — better known to punk music fans for years as Tom Gabel — gave her first on-camera interview since rocking the music industry by coming out as a transgender last month.
"Saying to someone, 'I'm a transsexual' is the most empowering thing I've ever felt in my whole life," she told MTV News during the interview, several clips of which premiered on the Spin web site.
The full interview will be aired on
MTV.com Tuesday.
