Laura Jane Grace

Born on November 8, 1980 in Fort Benning, Georgia, US, Laura Jane Grace is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the lead singer of the punk rock band Against Me! Her parents were United States Army Major Thomas Gabel and Bonnie Gabel (née Grace), she has a younger brother, Mark. A military brat, she and her family moved frequently, and she spent her childhood in many places, including Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Germany, and Naples, Italy. At 12, after her parents' divorce, she moved with her mother and brother to Naples, Florida. At 13 she formed her first rock band, which started their career by playing covers of Nirvana and Pearl Jam. In the following year she was arrested on the Independance Day, which led to her getting into anarcho-punk, writing for fanzines and ultimately dropping out of school at 17 to play with Against Me! in 1997. She worked odd jobs to make the ends meet, and in 2002 the band managed to release its debut album, "Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose". It was followed by "Against Me! as the Eternal Cowboy" in 2003 and " Searching for a Former Clarity" in 2005. The last of those was quite a success and the band toured the US, playing in all 50 states. Against Me! continued to record albums - "New Wave" in 2007 and "White Crosses" in 2010 - and got more and more success with each one. In May 2012 she came out as a transgender woman and in 2014 Against Me! released the album "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" dealing with the issue of being transgender. The same year she starred in the series True Trans with Laura Jane Grace (2014) and in 2016 her memoir entitled "Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout" was published. She was married to Tiffany Danielle Kay from 2000 to 2004 and to Heather Hannoura from 2007 to 2013. She and Hannoura have a daughter, Evelyn, born in 2009. Grace lives in Chicago.