Against Me! singer will surprises many
Against Me! frontman, Tom Gabel, is the one in the estimated 1 in 30,000 males who suffer from gender dysphoria. The singer has recently come out as a transgender and is about to undergo a process of receiving female hormones via electrolysis treatments.
Gender dysphoria, also known as gender identity disorder (GID), is a medical disorder similar to transsexualism, where one may feel discontent with their outer sexual appearance and feels it doesn’t match up with the gender they mainly identify with.
For years, Gabel, like many who suffer from GID, have questioned their sexual identity. In the song, The Ocean, he indicates the frustration he’s had on his sexual identity:
“If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman / My mother once told me she would have named me Laura / I would grow up to be strong and beautiful like her.”
Gabel, will remain married to his wife, Heather Gabel. Despite the sex change, he is not attracted to men. “For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she would accept the news, but she’s been super-amazing and understanding,” Gabel on her wife.
Along with the sex change, a name change is an order. Gabel will be newly baptized as Laura Jane Grace.