A few weeks ago Tom Gabel, lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me!, revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that he had begun a transition to living as a woman, taking the name Laura Jane Grace. After living with gender dysphoria most of his life, Gabel began hormone replacement therapy and electrolysis treatments, telling the magazine she hopes “people will understand, and hoping they’ll be fairly kind.”
In a fan’s footage taken from the frontwoman’s first live performance since the interview, it’s more than apparent that her fans understand, and honestly could care less. Against Me! opened for The Cult in San Diego on Friday with a 40-minute set that included tracks from several of their albums, including the upcoming aptly named LP, “Transgender Dysphoria Blues.” The show marks the first performance of a month-long tour with The Cult.
According to 411 Mania, after Grace sang the line from “The Ocean,” “If I could have chosen / I would have been born a woman,” moshing fans in the crowd erupted in cheers.
Fun fact: the band’s current drummer as of 2010, Jay Weinberg, is the son of E Street Band/Conan O’Brien’s Max Weinberg. Good to see the rock gene runs in the family.
Watch Laura Grace stomp out “Don’t Lose Touch” as hard as ever:
