Laura Jane Grace facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Laura Jane Grace
Grace performing in 2017
Born	Thomas James Gabel (1980-11-08) November 8, 1980 (age 44) Fort Benning, Georgia, U.S.
Spouse(s)	Tiffany Danielle Kay ​ ​ (m. 2000; div. 2004)​ Heather Hannoura ​ ​ (m. 2007; div. 2013)​ Paris Campbell ​ (m. 2023)​
Children	1
Musical career
Origin	Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Genres	Punk rock
Occupation(s)	Singer songwriter guitarist
Instruments	Vocals guitar bass electronic drums synthesizer harmonica
Years active	1990s–present
Labels	Misanthrope Crasshole Plan-It-X No Idea Sabot Fat Wreck Chords Sire Total Treble Bloodshot Red Scare Industries Polyvinyl Record Co.

Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas James Gabel; November 8, 1980) is an American musician. She is best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!.

Besides Against Me!, Grace also leads the band Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers. She started this solo project in 2016. Grace is known for being one of the first famous punk rock musicians to openly share that she is transgender. She did this in May 2012. She released her first solo album after her transition, Stay Alive, in 2020. Her album Hole in My Head followed in 2024.

Early Life and Music

Grace was born Thomas James Gabel in Fort Benning, Georgia. Her father was a Major in the United States Army. Her family moved often because of her father's military career. They lived in places like Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Germany, and Italy.

When she was 8 years old and living in Italy, Grace bought her first guitar. She saved money from mowing lawns to buy it. She taught herself how to play the guitar.

When she was 12, her parents divorced. Grace and her brother moved with their mom from Italy to Naples, Florida. This move was hard for Grace. She was often bullied at school and eventually left high school.

Grace has shared that she experienced feelings of sadness and discomfort with her gender identity from a young age. These feelings were a big part of her life.

In junior high, Grace became a fan of punk rock. She liked the ideas of freedom and questioning rules that the music shared. At 13, she played bass in her first band. They played songs by bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam at church talent shows.

Grace became good friends with James Bowman when they met in high school. They were both into punk rock music.

At 16, Grace created a zine called "Misanthrope." This was a small magazine she made herself. It talked about political topics. A special moment for her was interviewing Bobby Seale, a famous activist.

Grace played bass in a band called the Adversaries from 1994 to 1996. After that band ended, she briefly played in Common Affliction in 1996. The end of Common Affliction led her to record the first demo tape for Against Me! in December 1996.

Music Career

In 1997, at age 17, Grace left high school. She started writing songs for her new music project, Against Me!. When she was 18, she moved to Gainesville, Florida. She began performing as Against Me! sometimes alone with an acoustic guitar. Other times, her friend Kevin Mahon would play drums on pickle buckets. Her songs were like early protest music. They talked about topics like how different groups of people live.

Early Against Me! shows were in small places like bars and laundromats. She played for small audiences, sometimes even none. Grace worked odd jobs to make money. She also volunteered with groups that helped people.

In 2000, Grace convinced Bowman to move to Gainesville. She taught him how to play Against Me! songs on guitar. After releasing some early short albums called EPs, Against Me! became a full band. It included Grace, Bowman, bassist Dustin Fridkin, and drummer Warren Oakes.

Their first album, Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose, came out in 2002. It was released by a local independent record label called No Idea Records. Later, with Andrew Seward replacing Fridkin, the band signed with Fat Wreck Chords. They released Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy in 2003 and Searching for a Former Clarity in 2005. The name As the Eternal Cowboy meant an old-fashioned idea of a cowboy, always wandering alone. Searching sold over 65,000 copies and was their first album to appear on the Billboard 200 chart. Against Me! toured all 50 U.S. states to support it.

Against Me! at the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

As Against Me!'s popularity grew, Grace felt like she didn't quite fit in with the punk scene. She felt like she was playing a role. During this time, Grace hinted at her gender identity feelings in her song lyrics. For example, in "The Ocean," she sang, "If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman." To deal with stress, Grace spent 18 months living in hotels while writing the next Against Me! album.

2006–2011

In December 2005, Against Me! signed with Sire Records. This was a bigger record company.

Against Me!'s first album with Sire, New Wave (2007), became very popular. It reached number 57 on the Billboard 200 chart. Their song "Thrash Unreal" became a hit. Spin magazine named New Wave album of the year.

Grace released her solo EP, Heart Burns, in October 2008. The songs on it talked about the political and economic situation in the country. Grace said she wanted to record it simply and for fun. She toured to support the EP.

Against Me!'s fifth album, White Crosses, came out in 2010. It was their most successful album, reaching number 34 on the Billboard 200. Later that year, Grace started writing a concept album called Transgender Dysphoria Blues. This album was very well received.

Against Me! performing on the 2011 Warped Tour in Chula Vista, California

Against Me! stopped some tour dates in late 2010 and left Sire/Warner.

In 2011, Grace bought an old post office in Elkton, Florida. She turned it into a recording studio called Total Treble. She also started a record label for Against Me! releases called Total Treble Music. The studio closed in 2013 after a storm damaged it.

2012–Present

In 2012, Grace toured with other musicians.

In July 2018, Grace announced she would release an album under the name "Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers." The album, Bought to Rot, was made with bassist Marc Jacob Hudson and drummer Atom Willard.

Grace released Stay Alive in 2020. This was her first solo album. She wrote and recorded it during the COVID-19 pandemic. She couldn't record with her band, so she made a solo album instead. The album was recorded in three days. Stay Alive was released without much advance notice. While touring, Grace wrote her second solo album, Hole In My Head. The main song, "Hole in My Head," came out in October 2023. The album was released in February 2024.

In late 2023, Grace recorded six songs with Matt Patton, Mikey Erg, and her wife Paris Campbell Grace. These songs were released as the EP Give an Inch by "Laura Jane Grace & The Mississippi Medicals."

Writing and Other Projects

In 2015, Grace wrote a column called "Mandatory Happiness" for a publication called Noisey.

On November 15, 2016, Grace's memoir was published. A memoir is a book about a person's life. It was called Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout. She wrote it with Dan Ozzi. Much of the book is based on journals Grace had kept since third grade.

Grace also took part in a 10-part documentary called True Trans. In this show, she interviewed many different gender variant people. She let them share their stories, and she shared her own. In 2015, the show was nominated for an Emmy award.

In 2015, Grace worked with Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus. They made videos for the Happy Hippie Foundation. This foundation helps young people who are homeless and part of the LGBT community.

In 2024, Grace performed a few shows where she covered songs by the punk band Operation Ivy.

Personal Life

Grace was married in 2000, and that marriage ended in 2004.

In 2006, Grace met artist Heather Hannoura. They married in December 2007.

Grace and Hannoura have a daughter named Evelyn, who was born in 2009. The family moved to St. Augustine, Florida, in 2010. Grace and Hannoura later divorced in 2013.

Grace married comedian and content creator Paris Campbell in December 2023.

In 2006, Grace became a vegan. This means she does not eat animal products.

Grace has lived in Chicago since 2013. In 2018, she released a song called "I Hate Chicago" that talked about some things she didn't like about the city.

Views and Activism

Grace has shared that she believes in anarchist ideas. After moving to Florida, she discovered punk rock music. Around age 15 or 16, she learned about anarcho-punk music. She liked its ideas about fairness, fighting hate, and body freedom. Grace says these ideas have been important to her ever since. She often mentions the band Crass as an example of music with strong political messages.

The Against Me! song "Stop!" was part of the Rock the Vote campaign. This campaign encourages people to vote in elections.

At a show in Durham, North Carolina, in May 2016, Grace protested a law called the North Carolina bathroom bill. This law affected transgender people. As a protest, Grace set her birth certificate on fire and said, "Goodbye gender."

In 2020, Grace played at a fundraiser for Bernie Sanders's campaign for president.

Transition

Grace has said she felt gender dysphoria from a very young age. This means she felt a strong discomfort because her gender identity (who she knows herself to be) was different from the gender she was assigned at birth.

In May 2012, Grace publicly shared that she is a transgender woman in an article in Rolling Stone magazine. She announced her plans to begin transitioning. Transitioning means taking steps to live as your true gender. Grace had told her bandmates in February. In 2012, she began using the name Laura Jane Grace. "Laura" was the name her mother would have chosen if she had been born a girl. "Jane" was a name she liked, and "Grace" is her mother's family name.

In her 2012 interview, Grace shared her plans to take hormones and have electrolysis. These are medical steps to help her body match her gender identity. She also said she would live as a woman and talk with a therapist for a year before considering gender-affirming surgery.

Many people in the punk music community showed their support for Grace. Musicians like Brian Fallon and Mike Shinoda spoke out. GLAAD, an organization that supports LGBTQ+ people, hoped that Grace's public story would help more people understand and accept transgender people.

In January 2019, Grace confirmed she had facial feminization surgery in December 2018. This was part of her transition journey.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

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

Images for kids

• 

  Against Me! at the 2007 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

• 

  Against Me! performing on the 2011 Warped Tour in Chula Vista, California

See also

In Spanish: Laura Jane Grace para niños