More details have come out from the soon-to-be released Rolling Stone interview with Tom Gabel explaining to writer Josh Eells about her decision to begin the initial procedures to undergo a sex change.
Gabel, who will be known as Laura Jane Grace, tells Eells of her childhood memories having battled with gender dysmorphia her entire life. As a child, Gabel would find herself reaching out to her faith, praying to god: “Dear God, when I wake up, I want a female body”. Though when that failed she’d try and make a deal with the devil for help: “I promise to spend the rest of my life as a serial killer if you turn me into a woman”.
The article begins with the story of how Gabel met an Against Me! fan, January Hunt, who was herself a transgender individual; a meeting that inspired Gabel.
Heather, Gabel’s wife, is also featured in the article. She has chosen to stand by Tom: “I kept waiting to get mad. Like, ‘Tomorrow, I’ll be really upset'”, Heather told the magazine. “I’m like, ‘Let’s just see what happens, and we’ll just roll with it’. My friends have been like, ‘What about you?’ But I’m fine. I just want him to be who he is, and for us to get on with phase two. You know, just … change.”
This is going to be a very personal chapter in the lives of Gabel, and her friends and family – many who are yet to find out. Gabel explained when she opened up to the rest of the band about it: “I felt like I drop-kicked them in the face”, she said. “We had the most awkward hug ever, and then they left. And the second I shut the door, I was like, ‘What the fuck did I just do?”
Despite the changes, Gabel remains totally committed to continue with the band as a frontwoman. “However fierce our band was in the past, imagine me, six-foot-two, in heels, fucking screaming into someone’s face.”
Gabel, who has given up alcohol for the change, plans on spending a year as Laura before committing to sexual-rearrangement surgery.
