Anyone spied this article in Rolling Stone? Fascinating!

Lead singer of punk band Against Me! Tom Gabel, every bit the man on the outside, or so it would have appeared, has suffered for years from the gender issues which have plagued him since he was a child and is now to become a woman called Laura Jane Grace. I think there will be a degree of massive shock in the fact that punk, metal, hardcore, all genres associated to this band, are traditionally seen as the most "manly" in the music industry, and here is a tattooed iconic lead singer of a band changing from male to female.
Personally, I believe it is fantastic for him, or her as most of the media appear to have settled on. To have to live with such a weight for years must have been awful, and Tom will no doubt find happiness in his future now. But I imagine this will cause big shockwaves in the industry.

http://www.rollingstone....-as-transgender-20120508

Edited by user 09 May 2012 19:47:17(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The issue with people listening to them lies really in whether there will still be a band. While her bandmates have reportedly been very supportive of the decision, her voice will change when she starts taking estrogen hormone treatment, and at the moment she has a very manly punk voice. Whether this still works for them when she has a woman's voice is the big question.

Very few are actually worth listening to outside the 90s riot grrl movement though. Patti Smith was good though. And ignoring that, your voice is going to change after hormone therapy, no real way of knowing how it'll sound when it's all done. Might be it's just not a good singing voice.

Something very similar happened with the lead singer of Life of Agony, a New York hardcore band, Keith Caputo, now known as Mina. LoA have now apparently split, which is a shame I guess. Love that band.

Yeah, that would be weird.