The band’s frontwoman, Laura Jane Grace, had become a minor celebrity in the wake of a 2012 Rolling Stone profile in which she came out as transgender. This was the context for Transgender Dysphoria Blues, the sixth studio album by the fiercely political (and somewhat star-crossed) Florida punk band Against Me!, which was released that month. Back then, it wasn’t just that transgender men and women were scorned - they were virtually invisible in mainstream culture. It’s safe to say, for instance, that Colin Jost could’ve made a crack about Tinder recognizing gender nonconformity on Saturday Night Live with minimal blowback.
The media in general was unaware of its incorrect pronoun usage, and essentially ignorant of matters concerning gender identity.
(A bill similar to legislation introduced earlier this year in North Carolina was brought forward in Arizona in 2013 with nary a blip on the national radar.) The debate over so-called “bathroom bills” restricting access to transgender citizens was not yet an overriding concern on par with gay marriage. At the time, Caitlyn Jenner was still known as Bruce. But in terms of visibility for transgender Americans, it might as well be a different era. In some ways, January 2014 doesn’t seem so long ago.
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