9:15 pm - 05/08/2012
Against Me! singer Tom Gabel reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Gabel, who has dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years, will soon begin the process of transition, by taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments.
Gabel will eventually take the name Laura Jane Grace, and will remain married to her wife Heather. "For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news," says Gabel. "But she's been super-amazing and understanding."
Gabel only told a handful of family and friends about her plan to transition before talking to Rolling Stone. Because this is the first time a major rock star has come out as transgender, the singer made a point of speaking openly about it. "I'm going to have embarrassing moments," says Gabel, "and that won't be fun. But that's part of what talking to you is about – is hoping people will understand, and hoping they'll be fairly kind."
The full story of Gabel's transformation is in the latest issue, on newsstands this Friday (May 11th). In it, the singer tells Josh Eells about her history of gender dysphoria, the specifics of the transition process and what becoming Laura Jane Grace will mean for the future of Against Me!
Here's a before photo:
source
I wish her the best of luck. It's not going to be easy in terms of peoples acceptance, especially in that scene. I'm already seeing ignorant comments cropping up, people thinking this is funny and saying awful things about how this is bad for her daughter. I hope all the support she gets trumps the negativity.
Tom Gabel of Against Me! Comes Out as Transgender
Against Me! singer Tom Gabel reveals plans to begin living as a woman in the new issue of Rolling Stone. Gabel, who has dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years, will soon begin the process of transition, by taking hormones and undergoing electrolysis treatments.
Gabel will eventually take the name Laura Jane Grace, and will remain married to her wife Heather. "For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news," says Gabel. "But she's been super-amazing and understanding."
Gabel only told a handful of family and friends about her plan to transition before talking to Rolling Stone. Because this is the first time a major rock star has come out as transgender, the singer made a point of speaking openly about it. "I'm going to have embarrassing moments," says Gabel, "and that won't be fun. But that's part of what talking to you is about – is hoping people will understand, and hoping they'll be fairly kind."
The full story of Gabel's transformation is in the latest issue, on newsstands this Friday (May 11th). In it, the singer tells Josh Eells about her history of gender dysphoria, the specifics of the transition process and what becoming Laura Jane Grace will mean for the future of Against Me!
Here's a before photo:
source
I wish her the best of luck. It's not going to be easy in terms of peoples acceptance, especially in that scene. I'm already seeing ignorant comments cropping up, people thinking this is funny and saying awful things about how this is bad for her daughter. I hope all the support she gets trumps the negativity.
I am beyond amazed at your ability to act like ~The Only Real Transsexual In The World~. Your attempts to invalidate a person's gender identity when you yourself are trans* is shameful and sad. There are so many diverse, wonderful, and beautiful human beings under the trans* umbrella. It really upsets me to see such aggression coming from someone who should use their experience to embrace and accept someone brave enough to step out of the closet and live their lives openly.
I've been a Post Op since the summer of 1992, Pre-Op since 1988. Don't try to dictate what I know and don't know about myself and my community.
What's angering me, and will forever anger me are people that come into our community and label themselves as a transsexual. Just because you put on a pair of panties does not give you PMS rights. This is serious real life and your fake sympathy isn't garnering you any points.
This has been an ongoing problem in our community that the world has laughed us for YEARS! And continues to do so because of the Media and people that really need professional help. Its for this reason that many Post Ops refuse to come out of the closet and feel ashamed of what we are because people like yourself compare us to this situation.
We've had to battle the Old Men on Donahue and Oprah and then Jerry Springer and Maury ridiculed us with Drag Queens. Yet this continues to linger on because no one know who we are or what we are about.
When you sit by and watch many of people hang themselves, OD on drugs, wind up in Mental institutions and/or hurt someone else because of their mental problem, then try to come for me. You don't know the many issues that are plaguing our community and why we are continually ridiculed on a daily basis.
Until then you can take many seats.
Through the Transgender Center here in Houston, I continue to meet new people in the community, veterans and newbies, and each journey is individual and littered with a life of struggle and pain. I've danced with a trans* pastor, met a local trans* politician through a Day of Remembrance ceremony and know several other trans* men and women who fight every day to make Texas, and this country, safer for us. The Gender Book is created by friends I've made through the TG Center, and how wonderful a book like this is being made today!
I haven't been around long enough to have personally lived through the eras you have, but I do my damnedest to learn more about others in my community, about our history, and to ensure others don't feel alone because the trans* community SAVED MY LIFE. So it's not just your community, whether you like that or not.
Which is why it makes me so fucking irate to read your comments. When it is hard enough to be accepted into the cissexist world we live in, you have no fucking room to tell another trans* person their identity is invalid. You've got no right to bitch about media portrayal when you undermine such an awesome fucking moment like a ROCK STAR feeling safe enough to come out as trans* publicly. And an even more incredibly rare article actually using the right pronouns!
Did you even read the article? Because this is the first time a major rock star has come out as transgender, the singer made a point of speaking openly about it. "I'm going to have embarrassing moments," says Gabel, "and that won't be fun. But that's part of what talking to you is about – is hoping people will understand, and hoping they'll be fairly kind.
It is a tragedy that trans* people are ridiculed daily, often violently, and that is why you need to take several seats yourself, because the last thing this community needs is to be invalidated and humiliated from one of our own.
And your thing about professional help is steeped in privilege. Not everyone can afford that type of treatment. In this case, maybe she can afford it, but you have no idea what her story is or whether or not she's sought that help out already or not.
And by the way your time spent in the community is irrelevant. I've been raised in this community since I was two years old and I've seen it all. I've been around this for longer than you claim to have, so don't feed my that crap about understanding in time.
Take your own seat. It's folks like you that make it harder to unite our community and truly change our cultures perception of us.
Edited at 2012-05-09 09:16 am (UTC)
Your ridiculous 'just because you put on a pair of panties doesnt make you a woman' shit sounds like the kind of thing i would expect from an ignorant, transphobic bigot - not a person who is trans themselves. Sit the fuck down.
I'm not here to score brownie points for fake sympathy, I'd rather save a life and hope they receive the proper counseling they need. There's been enough death in my community due to HIV, Murders and Suicides.
Edited at 2012-05-09 04:38 am (UTC)