Tom Gabel of Against Me! comes out as a transgender woman
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Against Me! singer Tom Gabel reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Gabel, who has dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years, will soon begin the process of transition, by taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments.
Gabel will eventually take the name Laura Jane Grace, and will remain married to her wife Heather. "For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news," says Gabel. "But she's been super-amazing and understanding."
Gabel only told a handful of family and friends about her plan to transition before talking to Rolling Stone. Because this is the first time a major rock star has come out as transgender, the singer made a point of speaking openly about it. "I'm going to have embarrassing moments," says Gabel, "and that won't be fun. But that's part of what talking to you is about – is hoping people will understand, and hoping they'll be fairly kind."
The full story of Gabel's transformation is in the latest issue, on newsstands this Friday (May 11th). In it, the singer tells Josh Eells about her history of gender dysphoria, the specifics of the transition process and what becoming Laura Jane Grace will mean for the future of Against Me!
Such great respect to Laura. It takes amazing courage for someone to be so honest about themselves in front of the entire media spotlight- and I think it's amazing that there's someone so high-profile out there representing transgender peoples. Against Me! are a great band, though they might not be to ATRL's tastes. Best wishes to her during the transformation.
I've seen quite a bit of confusion over the internet over what to call her now, pronouns-wise. I think some people still see it as a biological thing- as long as she has male genitalia then she's male. I think Laura's story is going to be a good thing. A lot of the confusion is unintentional, as people just don't know how to approach the issue of transgender as their previous experience around the topic is pretty minimal. Hopefully Laura will give others the confidence to speak out.
This is HUGE. IIRC, this is the first time that an actual big time rock musician has made this transition, and, as Mr. Sound Check Graduation pointed out (sorry, I'm still not sure what to call you ), that it happened with someone in the punk rock genre is particularly huge.
Laura, you have all of my support through this, and I hope that your move helps to convince others who have gender dysphoria to embrace who they really are.
Benjamin, for some reason I invented a "his" in the first paragraph of the article.
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Originally posted by jinzo
I've seen quite a bit of confusion over the internet over what to call her now, pronouns-wise. I think some people still see it as a biological thing- as long as she has male genitalia then she's male. I think Laura's story is going to be a good thing. A lot of the confusion is unintentional, as people just don't know how to approach the issue of transgender as their previous experience around the topic is pretty minimal. Hopefully Laura will give others the confidence to speak out.
There's nothing to decide... If she says she's a woman and prefers female pronouns, you use female pronouns. Yeah, I'm sure you're right, but transphobia is still a huge problem, especially for trans women.
), that it happened with someone in the punk rock genre is particularly huge.
