Laura Jane Grace
| Laura Jane Grace | |
|---|---|
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Grace performing in 2014
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| Born |
Thomas James Gabel November 8, 1980 Fort Benning, Georgia, United States |
| Residence | Chicago, IL |
| Spouse(s) |
Tiffany Kay (m. 2000; div. 2004) Heather Hannoura (m. 2007; div. 2013) |
| Website | www |
| Musical career | |
| Origin | Gainesville, Florida, United States |
| Genres | Punk rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, singer, guitarist, record producer |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, bass, harmonica |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Labels | Misanthrope, Crasshole, Plan-It-X, No Idea, Sabot, Fat Wreck Chords, Sire, Total Treble |
| Associated acts | Against Me! |
Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas James Gabel, November 8, 1980) is an American musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!. Starting as a solo act in 1997, Against Me! expanded into a quartet and released seven studio albums, experiencing breakthrough success with 2007's New Wave and 2010's White Crosses. Grace also released a solo EP, Heart Burns, in 2008. In 2011, she founded the Total Treble recording studio and an accompanying record label, Total Treble Music.
Grace was married to visual artist Heather Hannoura from 2007 to 2014, when the two separated. Having dealt with gender dysphoria since childhood, Grace publicly came out as a transgender woman in 2012, ceasing to use her birth name and taking the name Laura Jane Grace.
Grace was born as an assigned male in Fort Benning, Georgia, the child of United States Army Major Thomas Gabel and Bonnie Gabel (née Grace). The family moved frequently between military bases, living briefly in Fort Hood, Texas; Pennsylvania; Ohio; Germany; and at a NATO post in Italy during the Gulf War. When she was 8 years old, living in Italy, Grace bought her first guitar with money saved from mowing lawns and took guitar lessons from an army officer. Grace experienced feelings of gender dysphoria from an early age.
Grace's parents had an acrimonious divorce when she was 12 years old, and never spoke to one another again. "I think [Laura] became the catchall for the anger of the split", said Grace's mother, who moved them to Naples, Florida to live with Grace's grandmother the following year. Grace felt severely depressed during this time, recalling it as "a period of extreme dysphoria – of just not wanting to be male". Constantly bullied at school and called a "faggot", by age 13, Grace was experimenting seriously with alcohol and drugs; including marijuana, LSD, and cocaine, and was arrested for possession of marijuana at 14. She would go on to struggle with addiction for years. Other coping mechanisms included skipping school to cross-dress at home.
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Wikipedia