tom gabel will soon be laura jane grace. in the upcoming issue of rolling stone, the against me! singer has announced that she has been plagued by a condition known as gender dysphoria since childhood and will begin a treatment of hormones and electrolysis in order to start living as a female. the 31 year old is, in fact, happily married and says that this decision will not affect her sexual orientation or marriage. speaking of her wife, gabel stated ”for me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news, but she’s been super-amazing and understanding.”

there is nothing as quite as useless as the human inclination to say, “you know, i always suspected something…” when someone makes a personal announcement like this. that being said, the soon-to-be ms. grace has certainly been expressing her plight in lyrics throughout the years. against me!’s 2007 debut album “new wave” features a song called “the ocean” where gabel sings, “if i could have chosen, i would have been born a woman/ my mother once told me she would have named me laura, i’d grow up to be strong and beautiful like her”. this march, gabel performed an unreleased (and now clearly personal) song called “transgender dysphoria blues,” which includes the lyrics, “you want them to notice the ragged ends of your summer dress/you want them to see you like they see every other girl/they just see a faggot”.

despite her “hoping people will understand, and hoping they’ll be fairly kind,” the trolls and haters have already began rabidly attacking. fellow rockers the gaslight anthem have come to gabel’s defense saying, ”how about you leave the guy alone.  how about you let another human being make a decision about their lives without your snide prejudices and bigotry? This is one of the hardest decisions a person can make.”

we at tape.tv wish tom gabel nothing but good health and happiness – just don’t lose that awesome punk-rock voice!!