Laura Jane Grace (born Thomas James Gabel; November 8, 1980)[1][2] is an American musician best known as the founder, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the punk rock band Against Me!.

[3][7][6][8] When she was 8 years old while living in Italy, Grace bought her first guitar from Sears mail order with money saved from mowing lawns.

Constantly bullied at school, Grace was drinking alcohol and taking drugs by age 13, substances which included pot, LSD, and cocaine.

[14] Grace has suffered from depression, attributing her "first memorable bout" to feelings of gender dysphoria after her first sexual relationship.

She also noted that depression occurs in both sides of her family, with her grandmother (also called Grace) being admitted to hospital regularly.

[2]: 17 While in junior high school Grace became a fan of punk rock, attracted to the nihilistic and anarchistic ideals of the genre.

'"[6] Grace said she was then slammed into a police car, thrown face-first to the pavement, jumped on, hogtied, put in a holding cell, and not allowed to call her mother.

Grace said her arrest and charges were all because "I was a dirty, grubby little punk kid with black spiky hair who hadn't washed his pants in a year.

"[6] Grace befriended James Bowman when they met on their first day of freshman year at Naples High School; the two have been close ever since.

[12][15][20] Grace played bass in a band called the Adversaries with Dustin Fridkin and a "revolving cast" of drummers from 1994 to 1996.

[12][15][21] In 1997, at age 17, Grace dropped out of high school and began writing songs, naming the musical project Against Me!.

[3][22] Moving to Gainesville, Florida, at 18, she began performing as Against Me!, either alone on an acoustic guitar or with friend Kevin Mahon accompanying by drumming on pickle buckets.

[3][23] Making ends meet by working odd jobs, dumpster diving, selling blood plasma, and living in a low-rent house with twelve roommates across the street from an experimental waste dump,[12] Grace also volunteered with nonprofit socialist groups such as Food Not Bombs.

developed into a full band consisting of Grace, Bowman, bassist Dustin Fridkin, and drummer Warren Oakes.

[23] With Fridkin replaced by Andrew Seward, the band signed to DIY indie record label Fat Wreck Chords[7] for 2003's Against Me!

'"[3][10] The stresses of the band's tour schedule, coupled with going through a divorce at age 24, contributed to her addiction: "I was just getting fucked up all the time: drinking, drugs, whatever.

[6][10] Throughout this time Grace made oblique references to gender dysphoria in song lyrics, including "The Disco Before the Breakdown" ("I know they're going to laugh at us / when they see us out together 'holding hands' like this"), "Violence" ("You've been keeping secrets ...

Nothing but shame and paranoia"), and "Searching for a Former Clarity" ("In the journal you kept by the side of your bed ... confessing childhood secrets of dressing up in women's clothes / Compulsions you never knew the reasons to").

[3][25] To help escape the stress and depression, Grace spent 18 months living in hotels on the outskirts of Gainesville while writing the next Against Me!

[3][6][23] With increased mainstream exposure, Grace swore off cross-dressing and other expressions of femininity: "You go through periods of binging and purging.

[24][27][28] The song "The Ocean" directly referenced Grace's gender dysphoria, with the lyrics "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 / One day I'd find an honest man to make my husband".

[3][29][30] Though Grace anticipated "completely outing myself" with the song, no one involved with the band seemed to pick up on the lyrics' literal meaning.

"[13] Grace supported the EP by performing on The Revival Tour with Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music, Tim Barry of Avail, and Ben Nichols of Lucero.

The record, Bought to Rot, was made with bassist Marc Jacob Hudson and drummer Atom Willard (Against Me!, Angels & Airwaves, The Offspring).

[46] On November 15, 2016, Grace's memoir Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, co-written with Noisey editor Dan Ozzi, was published.

[54] In 2015, Grace worked with Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus to make videos for the Happy Hippie Foundation to raise money for homeless LGBT youth.

[3] Grace's feelings of dysphoria "started coming back really strong" about the time Hannoura became pregnant that February, but were not acted on.

Around the age of 15 or 16 years old, Grace said that she also discovered the anarcho-punk and activist punk rock movements, which she found appealing for its feminist and anti-hate stance against racism, homophobia, and its embrace of body liberation.

became more successful, the constraints of the punk rock scene, which often had rigid sets of rules, were difficult to embrace, especially during the times when Grace was struggling with gender dysphoria.

[10][58] On continuing to perform in Against Me!, Grace said, "However fierce our band was in the past, imagine me, six-foot-two, in heels, fucking screaming into someone's face.