Friday, May 11, 2012

A popular musician comes out as trans

Tom Gabel, who is now going by the name Laura Jane Grace, leader of the band Against Me!  came out as trans in a Rolling Stone interview that will hit the racks today:
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."
Aside from a few obviously bigoted trolls (some of the comments on Rolling Stone's blog are awful), the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and it's forcing fans to look more closely at her lyrics. The song, "The Ocean" with its lines, "If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman. My mother once told me she would have named me Laura. I would grow up to be strong and beautiful like her. One day I’d find an honest man to make my husband." has been cited numerous times, but until now, Laura has given no indication of her transgender status.  Matthew Perpetua from Fluxblog wrote about the temptation to read the songwriter into the lyrics:
This thing with Gabel and “The Ocean” is intriguing to me because it’s so much the opposite of this White situation. Gabel was, in the plainest language possible, confiding in the listener, and virtually everyone who heard it assumed it was fiction. When asked about the song at the time it was originally written and recorded, Gabel dodged it because she wasn’t ready to come out as transgender, which is perfectly understandable. But still, this makes me wonder how often we’re listening to singers tell the truth in unexpected songs, and where we assume they’re singing the truth in pure fiction. We think we can tell, that we can suss out the difference between contrived narrative and confessional, but “The Ocean” shows us that sometimes we have no idea what we’re actually hearing.
Although Laura is not the first rock star to come out as trans -- last year Keith Caputo from the band Life of Agony began transitioning and now goes by the name Mina, and not to mention the legendary Jayne County -- but she is one of the most high-profile. Lora from Autostraddle added:
A major rock star coming out as trans would be huge news anywhere, but Gabel's coming out in the often testosterone-infused punk scene is especially significant. The scene can sometimes be an unwelcoming place for women musicians and fans, not to mention those who are gender nonconforming. At the end of the day, though, punk rock is about being true to yourself and not being weighed down by anyone else's expectations. Hopefully having someone as prominent and well-liked as Gabel come out will be a huge step in accepting an increasingly diverse punk community.
Full disclosure: I knew little about Against Me! before this story broke, but I've been in that sort of fan world for a good portion of my music listening life.  I know what it's like to want to identify with the person behind the lyrics -- and the danger in that, too. I've been reading some of the fan postings lamenting what this will do to the band, their sound, or their fanbase. Let me just say one thing: this isn't about you. It's a natural reaction to something that's been a huge part of your life -- when you've given up parts of your life for it -- but in the end, our favorite artists don't exist simply to please us. Publicly coming out as trans has to be one of the most difficult things to do, particularly for someone who's image is fully ensconced in a punk scene not immune to transphobia.

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