the t-shirt guy

I’ve been on an Against Me! kick all morning since hearing about the Rolling Stone article last night where Tom Gabel came out as transgendered.  Power to him/her.
Against Me! has been an influence in my life since 2006 or earlier and Gabel has pretty much written and sung the soundtrack to my life.  There’s an AM! song out there for any mood I’m in, and I’m sure everything they put out in the future will continue to be excellent.

It’s crazy to see how quickly this story has exploded across the music community. A thread on againstmeforum.net is already at over 9 pages of discussion from the other day, with tons of support from fans. The band Middle Class Rut posted a link to the article on their Facebook page bashing Rolling Stone for promoting this in a music magazine and seeing it as an attention grab, but that’s BS, AM! has been around since 97 or earlier, performed thousands of shows and already has a massive fanbase.  They don’t need the exposure for the band.  Sure they may think that a music magazine shouldn’t cover this, but it’s interesting and engaging content that looks into the lives of rock stars and that is the whole reason that people buy the magazine in the first place.  I know for me it’s going to be the first magazine I’ve purchased in four years or so, so it’s definitely a good move on Rolling Stone’s part.

It’s about social change and how people can deal with personal issues in modern society, and power to Rolling Stone for putting it more in the public eye.  It’s about empowering people to give them the right to own their own life, that you can control your own future.  

With or without the public support, Tom is becoming Laura, and she’s going to own this new life the same way she’s owned everything else she’s ever worked on.  I’m seeing these lines from the song pretty fitting for the situation.

“and I don’t want to be born again, 
don’t need anybody to speak for me.
I’m not interested in humoring illusions,
or apologizing for the sake of sentiment.”  

I’m curious to see what this means for the future of Against Me! and I’m excited for their upcoming album.  With all this being said, I’m extremely glad I had the chance to see them play last May at St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit as it was an epic show, and I’ll continue to support Laura and the band in everything that is yet to come.

Edit: A friend sent me this quote he found from Laura yesterday:

“However fierce our band was in the past, imagine me, six-foot-two, in heels, f—-ing screaming into someone’s face.”
Yeah, I’m not worried at all.