Laura Jane Grace

Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas James Gabel; November 8, 1980) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!. In addition to Against Me!, Grace fronts the band Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers, a solo project she started in 2016. Grace is notable for being one of the first highly visible punk rock musicians to publicly come out as transgender, which she did in May 2012. She released her first solo studio album since transitioning, Stay Alive, in 2020, followed by Hole in My Head in 2024.

Early life Grace was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, the eldest child of United States Army Major Thomas Gabel and Bonnie Gabel (née Grace). Grace has a brother named Mark, who is six years younger. The family moved frequently between military bases due to their father's military career, living briefly in Fort Hood, Texas; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Germany; and at a NATO post in Naples, Italy, during the Gulf War. When she was 8 years old while living in Italy, Grace bought her first guitar from Sears mail order with money saved from mowing lawns. Grace initially took guitar lessons from an army officer's wife, but ended up teaching herself how to play. In contrast to her time in Italy, Grace has said that moving to Florida was a difficult adjustment. Constantly bullied at school, Grace was drinking alcohol and taking drugs by age 13, substances which included pot, LSD, and cocaine. Grace was arrested for possession of marijuana at 14 and went on to struggle with addiction for years.

Grace has suffered from depression, attributing her "first memorable bout" to feelings of gender dysphoria after her first sexual relationship. She also noted that depression occurs in both sides of her family, with her grandmother (also called Grace) being admitted to hospital regularly. She was charged with resisting arrest and battery, placed under house arrest for the summer, and required to do 180 hours of community service. Grace said her arrest and charges were all because "I was a dirty, grubby little punk kid with black spiky hair who hadn't washed his pants in a year." "I have an inherent distrust of mankind. I think authority and government base their power on violence. I refuse to recognize anyone's power over me."

Grace played bass in a band called the Adversaries with Dustin Fridkin and a "revolving cast" of drummers from 1994 to 1996. The lineups were not stable, and the band had various names, including the Snot Rockets, Upper Crust, and eventually the Adversaries. The Adversaries released one (obscure) demo. Their "crowning achievement as a band" (according to Grace) was playing at "The Hardback" in Gainesville, Florida. The breakup of the Adversaries led to Grace briefly playing in a band called Common Affliction in 1996. The ending of Common Affliction led to Grace recording the first Against Me! demo tape in December 1996.

Career

In 1997, at age 17, Grace dropped out of high school and began writing songs, naming the musical project Against Me!. Moving to Gainesville, Florida, at 18, she began performing as Against Me!, either alone on an acoustic guitar or with friend Kevin Mahon accompanying by drumming on pickle buckets. Early Against Me! shows were played at dive bars, laundromats, and anywhere else that would allow Grace to perform, to audiences of a few or even zero. Against Me! supported it with a tour of all 50 U.S. states. To help escape the stress and depression, Grace spent 18 months living in hotels on the outskirts of Gainesville while writing the next Against Me! album.

2006–2011

In December 2005, Against Me! signed to Sire Records, a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. The song "The Ocean" directly referenced Grace's gender dysphoria, with the lyrics "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". Though Grace anticipated "completely outing myself" with the song, no one involved with the band seemed to pick up on the lyrics' literal meaning. Grace allegedly knocked a cup out of the man's hand, then forced his head into the wooden counter.

Grace's solo EP, Heart Burns, was released in October 2008. Timed to coincide with that year's United States presidential election, the EP's songs addressed the country's political and economic climate, criticizing presidential candidate John McCain and the trial of environmental activist Eric McDavid.

Against Me! cancelled a series of tour dates in October and November 2010 due to "a culmination of circumstances engulfing us", and left Sire/Warner.

In 2011, Grace purchased an abandoned post office in Elkton, Florida, converted it into a recording studio called Total Treble and launched an accompanying record label for future Against Me! releases, Total Treble Music. The first album recorded at the studio was Cheap Girls' Giant Orange (2012), which also marked Grace's first experience as a record producer. Total Treble Studio closed in 2013 after being destroyed in a storm.

2012–present In spring 2012, Grace performed on the Revival Tour with Chuck Ragan and Cory Branan.

In July 2018, it was announced that Grace would release an album in the fall of 2018 under the name "Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers" on Chicago-based Bloodshot Records. The record, Bought to Rot, was made with bassist Marc Jacob Hudson and drummer Atom Willard (Against Me!, Angels & Airwaves, The Offspring). The release included a tour with a three night weekly residency in Chicago.

Grace released Stay Alive in 2020, her debut solo studio album. The album was written and recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Grace was left without the ability to record with her band Against Me!, and thus made a solo album instead. The album was recorded over three days in Steve Albini's studio in Chicago. Stay Alive was released as a surprise album with no promotion.

On November 15, 2016, Grace's memoir Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, co-written with Noisey editor Dan Ozzi, was published. Much of the book is based on Grace's journals, which she had kept since third grade. The book was known under a working title of Kill Me Loudly or Killing Me Loudly in 2015, when Grace was working with a different publisher.

Other work Grace participated in a ten-part documentary called True Trans where she interviewed "gender variant people from all walks of life" to allow them to tell their stories, in addition to telling hers. In 2015, the show was nominated for an Emmy for New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle, Culture.

Personal life In a 2007 interview with SPIN, Grace said that she had married Tiffany Kay in 2000, when Grace was 19 years old. The marriage ended in divorce four years later in 2004. The two spent the summer together on the Warped Tour, began living together, and got tattoos of each other's names. The couple separated in July 2025, following allegations of emotional abuse from both parties.

In 2006, Grace became a vegan. She released a song titled "I Hate Chicago" in 2018, that satirised and criticised many aspects of the city.

Political views and activism Grace has said that she is an anarchist. After leaving Naples, Italy, and moving to Naples, Florida, Grace said that she discovered punk rock music around the age of 13. Around the age of 15 or 16 years old, Grace said that she also discovered the anarcho-punk and activist punk rock movements, which she found appealing for its feminist and anti-hate stance against racism, homophobia, and its embrace of body liberation. Grace said she has been influenced by these concepts as core values since learning about them.

The Against Me! song "Stop!" was part of the Rock the Vote campaign to encourage voting in the 2008 US presidential election.

At a May 2016 Against Me! show in Durham, North Carolina, Grace set her birth certificate on fire in protest of the North Carolina bathroom bill. Grace said "Goodbye gender" during this act of protest.

In 2020, Grace played at a fundraiser for Bernie Sanders's campaign for the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries. She additionally performed at Sanders's "Fighting Oligarchy: Where We Go From Here" tour on March 7, 2025. Her performance of the song "Your God (God's Dick)" created controversy, as right-wing commentators and news outlets described the song as "anti-Christian". In response, Grace defended herself and the song's message, stating, "That song is the most relevant song I have right now to everything that's going on." The song was performed in protest to "president Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers’ proposed plans to cut federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid that low-income families rely on."

Transition

Grace experienced feelings of gender dysphoria from a young age, citing them as her "earliest memories". Grace publicly came out as a transgender woman in May 2012 in an article to Rolling Stone. Grace announced plans to begin transitioning. Having been inspired to come out after meeting a transgender Against Me! fan, Grace had informed the rest of the band that February. In 2012, she began publicly using the name Laura Jane Grace. "Laura" is the name her mother would have chosen had she been assigned female at birth, "Jane" was selected simply because she thinks it's pretty, and "Grace" is her mother's maiden name. On continuing to perform in Against Me!, Grace said, "However fierce our band was in the past, imagine me, six-foot-two, in heels, fucking screaming into someone's face."

In response to Grace's announcement, a number of figures in the punk community voiced their support, including musicians Brian Fallon, Brendan Kelly, Franz Nicolay, and Mike Shinoda; cartoonist Mitch Clem; and professional wrestler CM Punk. Herndon Graddick, President of GLAAD, hoped that Grace's public profile would increase public awareness and acceptance of trans people: "[Laura] is displaying extraordinary courage by coming out as transgender after already establishing herself as a rock star. For many of the band's fans, this may be the first time they're actually thinking about transgender people and the bravery it sometimes takes in order to be true to yourself."

Grace confirmed in January 2019 that she underwent facial feminization surgery in December 2018 as part of her transition.

Discography Studio albums Title Details Peak chart positions USSales USIndie Bought to Rot (as Laura Jane Grace and the Devouring Mothers)Released: November 9, 2018 Label: Bloodshot Format: 12" 33⅓ RPM LP, CD, digital download, streaming 90 16Stay AliveReleased: October 1, 2020 Label: Polyvinyl Format: 12" 33⅓ RPM LP, CD, cassette, digital download, streaming — —Hole in My HeadReleased: February 16, 2024 Label: Polyvinyl Format: 12" 45 RPM LP, CD, cassette, digital download, streaming — —Adventure Club (as Laura Jane Grace in the Trauma Tropes)Released: July 18, 2025 Label: Polyvinyl Format: 12" 45 RPM LP, CD, cassette, digital download, streaming — —

Extended plays Title Details Peak chart positions US Heart BurnsReleased: November 9, 2008 Label: Sire Format: 12" 33⅓ RPM vinyl LP, CD, digital download, streaming 185At War with the SilverfishReleased: September 22, 2021 Label: Polyvinyl Format: 10" 45 RPM vinyl EP, digital download, streaming —Give an InchReleased: September 6, 2024 Label: Diabl Back Sound Format: 12" 45 RPM vinyl EP, CD, digital download, streaming —

Singles As lead artist

As featured artist

with Against Me!

Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose (2002) Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy (2003) Searching for a Former Clarity (2005) New Wave (2007) White Crosses (2010) Transgender Dysphoria Blues (2014) Shape Shift with Me (2016)

Filmography 2014: True Trans with Laura Jane Grace (TV Series documentary) on AOL Studios – 10 episodes

Awards 2014: The Advocate, 40 under 40 2014: OUT, OUT 100 2015: Emmy Award, News & Documentary Emmy Award, New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle, Culture (nominee) for True Trans 2017: Alternative Press Music Awards, Icon Award

Selected works and publications Mandatory Happiness column

Book