Against Me! singer Laura Jane Grace, who came out as transgender in Rolling Stone in 2012, has made a web series True Trans With Laura Jane Grace and the first four episodes are streaming now via AOL. The unscripted, 10-episode serieschronicles Graces life both onstage and offstage and spotlights transgender people as they learn who they are. The premiere comes a day before National Coming Out Dayon October 11th.
My earliest memories are of gender dysphoria, Grace says at the beginning of the first episode. I felt lost and at times like I couldnt survive. It took until I was 31 to publicly come out as a transgender woman. Nothing has been the same since.
The premiere episode, which runs just under seven minutes, tells the story of Graces growing-up years through her own interviews and those with her mother and bandmate, guitarist James Bowman. The second explores transgender dysphoria the feeling that ones biological gender does not match how they feel inside and spotlights the insights of transgender people who have experienced the condition. The third documents how she, and the transgender people from the second episode, discovered what being transgender meant and came to terms with her feelings.
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And the final episode that is currently streaming covers the suicidal thoughts that transgender people have felt and how they worked toward accepting themselves. The statistic is that 41 percent of trans people attempt suicide in their life, and Im part of that statistic, Grace says in the episode. It also contains footage of Against Me! performing in a recording studio.
Literally every single Against Me! record has songs that was me dealing with my dysphoria, Grace says in the episode. And at first, I really masked the lyrics and it wasnt very direct. And then it almost became my subconscious pushing me forward to deal with it. And I didnt intend to necessarily out myself, but it was just happening.
More episodes will be available to stream on November 4th and November 25th.