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Against Me! Fuels The Fire
Setting fire to a legal document in public is about as punk rock as you can get and that’s exactly what the transgender lead singer of Against Me! did at a show in Durham, N.C.
The crowd reportedly erupted with applause and cheers for Laura Jane Grace as she set fire to her birth certificate during the band’s show at
The bill requires an individual to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender identity listed on one’s birth certificate and strips away other protective rights. Grace commended
“Bruce Springsteen pulling out of a concert has a noticeable financial effect,” Grace told Post. “That’s lost revenue for the city. No one will notice that much if I cancel the show; it only hurts the fans and the people who have already bought tickets and the people who could possibly be educated in a situation like that.”
She continued to clarify that it’s more than a bathroom bill.
“You know, there’s been a lot of focus on just the bathroom part of HB2, but one of the other huge parts is that it takes away a transgender person’s right to sue for discrimination on the state level and that is huge,” Grace said. “I mean, if someone else has the right to sue for discrimination and I don’t, how [is that] constitutional?”
Grace, formerly Tom Gabel, came out in 2012 as transgender and in 2014 the band released the Transgender Dysphoria Blues album.