Known badass and generally awesome musician Laura Jane Grace rocked out in Durham, NC this past weekend. Grace is the front woman of the thrash metal band "Against Me!" who began their US and Canada summer tour in Durham, NC in one of the most politically turbulent times in recent history with the passing of HB 2, or House Bill 2, which bans transgender individuals from using the bathroom that matches their gender. What makes this statement so bold is that Grace herself is a lesbian transgender woman.
As anyone who has ever heard Against Me!’s music, the band has an avid and enthusiastic defense of LGBTQIA with an emphasis on trans rights, evident in songs such as "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" and "True Trans Soul Rebel." "Against Me!" has made a name for itself off these songs and has been appearing at popular music festivals like Riot Fest! and Bonnaroo, but their most notable action was at their Durham appearance when Laura Jane Grace lit her birth certificate on fire and yelled, “Goodbye, gender!” as the crowd cheered her on. As it burned in all its arbitrary glory, the room screamed with passion and it showed how a piece of paper truly doesn’t define a person’s gender or how they define themselves.
In a time when most musicians, bands, and movies are pulling out of North Carolina, "Against Me!" used it as a chance to make a statement that meant something. Although Grace hasn’t commented on what she did yet, it’s apparent she isn’t going to let one states transphobic laws stop her from what she does best - rock. This, however, has not stopped the fact that trans people are still being attacked and murdered. In the national attention that HB2 has garnered, there is now a gender witch hunt going on in and outside the bathrooms of America.
Viral videos have popped up of Evangelical Christians screaming bile with bibles through the halls of Target and grown cisgender men are threatening to camp out in bathrooms to make the women uncomfortable and "test" the policy, even though they all identify as men. it’s becoming more and more apparent who the real danger in the bathrooms are, and it's not trans people. Articles have begun floating around claiming that we’ve “lost America” and that because transgender people have rights then America is going down the gutter and our founding fathers would be disappointed. Our founding fathers didn’t know what a germ was, so maybe relying 100 percent on them in the 2016 isn’t the best idea.
America has a harsh history of genocide and bigotry. All minorities in America have suffered at the hands of the greater majority in power, typically cisgender white men. Transgender people, and all people on the LGBTQIA, are simply trying to gain the rights that they’ve been denied all throughout history. America isn’t descending into a fiery hellscape where the devil runs around stabbing all godly people with his little pitchfork, it’s becoming an even brighter nation. When we take steps as a nation to raise up those who our history has trampled on, then we grow together and we become better for it.
So fists and middle fingers up for Laura Jane Grace, as is the metal fan way, and keep on rocking. If everyone can take steps to stand behind our trans brother and sisters then we can actually make America great for maybe one of the first times in history.
