Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace shares story in Cosmo

On the final track of New Wave, the 2007 LP from Florida punk rockers Against Me!, the band’s lead vocalist (then known as Tom Gabel) sings the following:  “If I could have chosen I would have been born a woman/My mother once told me she would have named me Laura.”  It’s not unusual for musical artists, especially liberal-minded ones such as AM!, to take on a variety of perspectives and voices in their songs.

LJG and her daughter Evelyn at home.

It’s understandable, then, that the events of May 2012 were a shock to even the musician’s closest friends.  That was when the artist formerly known as Gabel came out to the world as transgender, giving lyrics on New Wave new significance for listeners.  Now known as Laura Jane Grace, Against Me!’s leader is the first “rock star” to publicly share her gender transition: the initial news came through a Rolling Stone article last spring.  A year later, she has shared her experiences during her first year spent in transition.  The testimony was published this past week in Cosmopolitan, of all magazines.

Most of the article features Grace’s own voice: topics include private and public reactions (individuals ranging from wife Heather to rock veteran Joan Jett have been awesomely supportive), reflections on parenting (she’s fine with daughter Evelyn calling her “daddy”; also, every morning they look at music videos and record covers together.  Coolest parent ever, right?) and frank discussion about her changing body and intimacy.   Hopes and fears (such as how Evelyn will handle it in the future) are discussed in a refreshingly frank manner.  Grace is a brave woman and an inspiration, not only in making a decision that was difficult but ultimately right for her, but also in doing publicly as a means of demystifying trans* issues and helping combat transphobia. But why Cosmo?

While the fact that Grace’s story was featured in the most heteronormative magazine ever concerned me at first, perhaps it isn’t such a bad thing. While there has been controversy over the introduction’s reference to pre-transition Grace as “he”, violating accepted trans* protocol (although Grace has ok’d the use in this case, it is a general rule that when describing a trans* person, you should pretty much always use the pronoun that individual identifies with today.)  The magazine’s ubiquity means that Grace’s story will reach an audience who may be less aware or accepting of trans* people as, say, the left-leaning musical community.  Here’s hoping readers don’t skip over the pages about Grace.  While Cosmo’s treatment of the issue isn’t flawless, their willingness to publish the feature on Grace at all could go a long way towards bringing informative, positive portrayals of trans* people to a wider audience.