Two years after coming out publicly as transgender in Rolling Stone, rocker Laura Jane Grace is hitting her stride — both personally and as a musician.
“I feel like I’ve grown as a person in the past two years in ways that I still don’t fully realize,” Grace told msnbc.
Grace sings and plays guitar for Against Me!, a political punk rock band she started in Gainesville, Florida in the late ’90s.
“I think that coming out has made me a lot better of a person. It’s made me less of a stressed out person because I don’t have to compartmentalize my life. And just realizing in a lot of ways that you shouldn’t underestimate people and that people will be there to support you and really can surprise you in life,” she said.
Against Me! is currently traveling across the United States and Europe supporting their latest record “Transgender Dysphoria Blues.” While on tour, Grace is working on So Much More, an original web series for aol where she connects with fans and friends on the road. Grace is also documenting her experiences for an upcoming memoir. msnbc caught up with Grace during their New York City performance to find out what she’s learned over the past two years, and we followed her out to Brooklyn for a raucous late-night performance. Drew Katchen is a web producer for msnbc, and he is the editor, producer and secondary shooter for this video. Ben Poster served as the primary shooter and Adrian Taylor served as a secondary shooter and production assistant.
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