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; sep. 2025)​
Children	1
Musical career
Origin	Gainesville, Florida, U.S.
Genres	Punk rock
Occupation(s)	Singer songwriter guitarist
Instruments	Vocals guitar bass 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 November 8, 1980) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. She is best known as the founder and lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me!. Grace is also the leader of the band Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers.

Grace is one of the first well-known punk rock musicians to publicly come out as transgender. She shared her story in 2012. Being transgender means a person's gender identity is different from the one they were assigned at birth. Since then, she has released solo albums like Stay Alive (2020) and Hole in My Head (2024).

Early Life and Music

Grace was born in Fort Benning, Georgia. Her father was a major in the United States Army, so her family moved often. They lived in Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Germany, and Italy. When she was eight years old and living in Italy, Grace bought her first guitar with money she earned from mowing lawns. She taught herself how to play.

When she was 12, her parents divorced. She moved with her mother and younger brother to Naples, Florida. Grace found it hard to adjust to her new life in Florida.

In junior high school, Grace discovered punk rock music. She was drawn to its energy and ideas about freedom. At age 13, she played bass in her first band with friends from her church youth group. They played songs by bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Grace became a big fan of the British anarcho-punk band Crass. She felt their music was a powerful way to talk about politics and make a change in the world.

Career with Against Me!

In 1997, when she was 17, Grace started a musical project called Against Me!. She moved to Gainesville, Florida, and began performing alone with an acoustic guitar. Her early songs were about social topics like class struggle.

In 2000, Grace asked her high school friend James Bowman to join the band. Soon, Against Me! became a full four-person band. They released their first album, Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose, in 2002.

The band signed with the indie record label Fat Wreck Chords for their next two albums. Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy (2003) was a concept album about love and war. Their 2005 album, Searching for a Former Clarity, was a big success. It was the first of their albums to appear on the Billboard 200 chart.

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

Mainstream Success

In 2005, Against Me! signed with Sire Records, a major record label. Their 2007 album, New Wave, brought them even more success. It reached number 57 on the Billboard 200 chart. The single "Thrash Unreal" became a hit on rock radio. Spin magazine named New Wave its album of the year.

One song on the album, "The Ocean," had very personal lyrics for Grace. She wrote, "If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman / My mother once told me she would have named me Laura." At the time, few people understood that she was writing about her own feelings of gender dysphoria.

In 2010, the band released White Crosses. It was their highest-charting album, reaching number 34 on the Billboard 200. Later that year, Against Me! left Sire Records.

In 2011, Grace started her own record label, Total Treble Music. She also turned an old post office in Elkton, Florida, into a recording studio called Total Treble Studio.

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

Solo Career and Recent Work

In 2018, Grace formed a new group called "Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers." They released the album Bought to Rot that year.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Grace could not record with her band. Instead, she recorded a solo album called Stay Alive (2020). It was recorded in just three days at a studio in Chicago. Her second solo album, Hole In My Head, was released in 2024.

Personal Life

Grace was married to visual artist Heather Hannoura from 2007 to 2013. They have a daughter named Evelyn, who was born in 2009. Grace and Hannoura separated shortly after Grace came out as transgender.

In December 2023, Grace married comedian and content creator Paris Campbell. They separated in July 2025.

Grace has identified as an anarchist since she was a teenager. She believes in using music to talk about important issues and stand up for what is right. In May 2016, she protested a North Carolina law by setting her birth certificate on fire on stage.

Coming Out as Transgender

Grace felt that her gender identity did not match the one she was given at birth since she was a child. In May 2012, she publicly came out as a transgender woman in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine.

She chose the name Laura Jane Grace. "Laura" was the name her mother would have given her. She picked "Jane" because she liked it, and "Grace" is her mother's maiden name.

Many people in the music community supported her announcement. Her bravery helped raise awareness about transgender people. In 2014, she starred in a documentary series called True Trans with Laura Jane Grace, where she interviewed other transgender people about their lives.

In 2019, Grace confirmed she had facial feminization surgery as part of her transition. This is a set of procedures that can help a person's face look more feminine.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

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)

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

See also

In Spanish: Laura Jane Grace para niños