Laura Jane Grace

Punk rock is built on a foundation of being yourself, of anarchy in the face of the rules and norms of society, and for decades, punks have fought to express their truest selves. However, the community has always been overwhelmingly masculine, and darkly violent. For Laura Jane Grace, one of punk’s first and most visible transgender musicians, the genre she loved so much could never allow her to express her truest self until the aggression of toxic masculinity was toppled and gender and sexuality were treated with the same self-expression and anarchistic outlook.

By 2008, Grace’s band Against Me! were on their way to becoming rock royalty. Record labels promised them fame and fortune, singles were climbing up the charts, and the band were playing to tens of thousands, supporting rock gods Foo Fighters on tour. But for Laura, it rang hollow – the fans screaming their love towards a person she didn’t know, a gender that was ill-fitting. It amplified the dysphoria she had felt her entire life, and she spiralled into depression, despite the dream-come-true she was living. She knew the only way she could live her life was to live honestly as herself.

When Grace came out as trans in 2012, she did it loudly and unapologetically via an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, launching herself into the limelight as one of the most visible trans musicians in the world. Against Me!’s next album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, was a rallying cry and an angry open letter to all the dysphoria the band’s frontwoman had been internalising for three decades. The response from the punk scene was overwhelming love and support. She has since become a beacon for anarchist LGBTQ+ youth, helping the punk rock community become more accepting, richer, and honest for adding queer voices to its rallying cry against the world’s injustices.