There's a deeply dispiriting collection of news reports today (just Google Laura Jane Grace Gabel Against Me) about the lead singer/songwriter and guitarist for the band Against Me! who has announced that she's transgender and is beginning medical and social transition to help alleviate her gender incongruity.
The news reports are dispiriting for two reasons: first, that TS/TG people, regardless of what they do for a living, are still objects of curiosity whose primary value is as a source of gossip for the general public - and second, that the reporting of such a deeply personal matter is still so substandard.
On her Twitter feed, Laura links to an article to be published later this week in Rolling Stone magazine. I can only begin to imagine how difficult that must have been for her and the pain of seeing it so full of sloppy reporting can only have added insult to injury at an already incredibly difficult time. Although Rolling Stone actually manages to respect her preferred pronouns - and it's frustrating to realise that even in 2012 it's still a comparative rarity to see even this most basic form of respect in the mass media - it's immediately cancelled out by the first paragraph which wastes no time in spouting the same hackneyed old nonsense that will be sickeningly familiar to anyone who's found themselves in the same position.
I'm not going to get into a rant about the mass media's appallingly and continually low standards of journalism about TS/TG issues - I'd be here all day and anyway, I've done more than enough of that in previous posts here at BoP and elsewhere. I just think it's sad that, despite much progress in the acceptance of TS/TG people over the past few years in many sectors of public life, we're still running into this ignorance time and again. I only hope that the fans of Against Me! are evolved enough not to let loose a wave of transphobic bigotry in a kneejerk reaction against Laura's changes.
Anyway, I'm going to close this brief post by wishing Laura a future full of good and happy things and hope that her transition is as smooth and as safe as it possibly can be. Much love, Laura, thinking of you.
If I could have chosen
I would have been born a woman
My mother once told me she would have named me Laura
I'd grow up to be strong and beautiful like her
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Cross-posted from Bird of Paradox
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