Punk Rock Frontman Switching Sexes

Tom Gabel, lead singer of punk rockers Against Me!, is about to become the band's frontwoman. Gabel—soon to be known as Laura Jane Grace—has decided to begin living as a woman and will soon start taking hormones. She says she has long struggled with a condition known as gender dysphoria and is considering gender reassignment surgery. Gabel, speaking to Rolling Stone, stressed that she is not attracted to men and intends to stay married to wife Heather.

"For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news," Gabel says. "But she's been super-amazing and understanding." Before the Rolling Stone interview, Gabel had only come out as transgender to a few friends and family members, although fans may have spotted clues in the band's lyrics, the Guardian notes. On the band's 2007 song "The Ocean," Gabel sang: "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." (More Against Me stories.)