Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout by Laura Jane Grace

Release Date: November 15, 2016

​Most rockstars wait until their twilight years to publish a memoir that recounts the various misdeeds that happened throughout their careers. However, the ambitious 36-year-old Against Me! front woman —Laura Jane Grace— decided to waste little time and published a noteworthy entry into the Rock Memoir genre. Now, within the pages of Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rocks Most Infamous Sellout you will see the usual trappings of the rock memoir genre —the excess of life on tour, arguments with bandmates, and the alienation that results from their poor choices— spoken about, not with reverence, but with a more somber, empathetic tone for those caught in the wake of both her career and personal choices.

Tranny seems to chronicle of the rise of Laura Grace's anarchist punk group Against Me! citing events like the bands inception in Gainesville Florida, its fall from grace in the punk community, the momentous occasion of signing to a label, the copious amounts of touring, and the shenanigans people get up to on tour. This is paralleled by the private moments that provide an important context not only for the band but for Laura Jane herself. The book is peppered with journal excerpts from when she was a young boy who spent his free time journaling —and on more than one occasion— trying on his mother’s stockings to her full transition from Thomas James Gabel into Laura Jane Grace. It is in these private, more quiet moments, where this memoir is particularly effective, for this is where we truly get a sense of the struggles that plagued Laura Grace for so long.  These two perspectives—front woman and person— are cohesively interwoven to tell us of the circumstances that led Laura Grace to this point personally and professionally.

At the start of this narrative we see Laura dive straight into her memories of being the son of a soldier, admiring Madonna on MTV, the first experience he had of wearing his mother’s clothing, and the shame he felt for exploring that curiosity in femininity. These recollections serve as an important context for the journal entries found throughout the book as we see Thomas James Gabel fight to suppress the feeling that he was meant to be a woman. The way he sought to pacify this inner turmoil was through binge drinking, drug use, and the infrequent lapses where he would dress as the woman he felt in his heart. This true self that he sought to deny not only caused damage to his psyche but a separation from those closest to him, specifically his father, his bandmates, and his first and second wives. These chapters are —understandably— oppressive as we feel the weight of his secret crushing down upon him but, when Thomas does unburden himself to those he loves, theirs is a sense of freedom that is liberating. Thankfully, there’s a respite for this darkness in the book's closing chapter where Laura Grace publicly comes out as a woman, admitting that while she is in a better place she feels as though she has not fully transitioned. However, it still feels like the hardest chapter in Laura Grace’s life has finished by the closing paragraph. It should be noted that while the world is becoming more cognizant of transgender politics, few books choose to approach the topic with the type of honesty that Laura Grace does. This memoir conveys emotional vulnerability while being paired with timely gender politics that makes Tranny a page turner. 
​
-Jeremy Nietzke

Watch Laura Jane Grace talk about her memoir, Tranny, with Trevor Noah, the host of The Daily Show.