It’s been about 36 hours since Rolling Stone broke the news on their website. After a lifetime of struggling with gender dysphoria, Tom Gabel, singer of Against Me! came out as transgender. She will begin the process of becoming a woman and will soon change her name to Laura Jane Grace.

As a massive fan of Against Me!, this announcement was shocking to me. I didn’t realize “The Ocean” was a first person account of Tom’s life. I’m far too ignorant to imagine that a confident straight guy who fronts a bad-ass punk-rock band could be battling with such a deep sense of disconnection from himself. I am an open-minded (and open-hearted) person, but I just didn’t see that announcement coming in a million years.

Read the rest of this entry →