More Eye-Widening Quotes From the Rolling Stone Article on Against Me Singer’s Gender Switch

Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 05/10/2012 at 5:02 PM News

The Popdust Files: against me!, magazine interviews

As jaw-dropping as the original revelation from Against Me! singer Tom Gabel (now Laura Jane Grace) was that she planned on living the rest of her life as a woman, going through hormone treatment and electrolysis to make the transition, it looks like that was just an appetizer for the full-scale wow factor of the entire Rolling Stone interview. MTV did us the favor of parsing the interview for the most telling moments, and there are many, most from Grace herself, though a couple interesting quotes come from her wife (from before the gender reassignment, who plans to stay with him) as well. Noteworthy moments include:

• On Grace wishing to be female as a kid: “[She] felt ashamed, telling writer Josh Eells that she would often pray to God, asking, ‘Dear God, when I wake up, I want a female body.’ And when that didn’t work, she’d try pleading with the devil, saying, ‘I promise to spend the rest of my life as a serial killer if you turn me into a woman.’”
• On telling the rest of the band the news: “I felt like I drop-kicked them in the face…We had the most awkward hug ever, and then they left. And the second I shut the door, I was like, ‘What the f— did I just do?’”
• On giving up alcohol during the process: “I don’t want to feel like, ‘This is an uncomfortable situation, I’ll have a couple drinks…I want to meet it head-on.”
• On continuing on in Against Me! as a woman: “However fierce our band was in the past, imagine me, six-foot-two, in heels, f—ing screaming into someone’s face.”
• Wife Heather on her reaction to the revelation: “I kept waiting to get mad. Like, ‘Tomorrow, I’ll be really upset’…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.”

Definitely not lightweight stuff. The full Rolling Stone article hits newsstands tomorrow and, no offense to RS, but we actually might have to spend money on the mag for the first time in a loooooong time.

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