Tom Gabel comes out as trangendered

[T-6005]

Big fucking deal. If people are worried about preserving her 'he' voice, they'll have half a fucking mind and listen to the older record where they feel safe identifying a singer's gender through their tonal range.

It's gendering that feels safe because it's supposedly been brought into the realm of sex.

Supportive is good, but how has it become a point of worry whether someone 'sounds' like a woman? Old Against Me! (as much as I hated them) records will never go away, and perhaps more significantly, people are somehow jumping on the 'voice is gender bandwagon.' And that one does bother me.

To put my ease with gender/voice/register issue more into perspective, I present 'Boomerang,' by Serge Gainsbourg and reimagined by Etienne Daho and Dani -Found here. My (admittedly entirely personal) favorite example of singing that manages to ignore idiocies like whether someone sounds like a man or a woman.

Personally, I'll Judith Butler this one until the end of the day.

[Little_Miss_1565]

Thi, I was 100% with you until Serge Gainsbourg. I can't abide that old creep, though I appreciate his impact on music.

While you are correct that voice is not gender, hormone therapy does change voices. At least when the F to M guys I knew began transitioning, their voices became deeper, and alto singers became baritones.

[0r4ng3]

Geez, all I said was that people were curious about it. I didn't say a thing about anyone being disappointed or angry about it. I mean, there are so many that are still unfamiliar with the whole concept, myself included. That doesn't mean I'm some kind of asshole for asking questions.

In all honesty I don't even listen to the band anymore, so I couldn't care less whether or not this makes them sound "better" or "worse". I, as well as many others, are just legitimately curious here.

[Alison]

This is pretty cool, and good on her for actually taking the step of going ahead with it. It must be a pretty hard subject to approach your wife with!

I will just miss how bloody hot he/she was! But who knows, he may turn into a girl crush.

[RageAndLov]

Holy shit! I just read about it now checking the front page of a Norwegian newspaper. AM! is coming to Norway in July and I am going to see them then. I am very shocked of this news, mildly put. I actually kind of doubt the whole thing, and that it is more a publicity stunt he is doing in order to spread awareness of people being transgenders.

And The Ocean suddenly got a whole new meaning.

[Defender]

I absolutely disagree with his/her decision but it would be interesting to see what will happen...

[RageAndLov]

I absolutely disagree with his/her decision but it would be interesting to see what will happen...

In what way do you disagree with his decision? Because of the different voice he most likely will end up with? Or because of something else?

For me, I would hate to have his voice changed even further than the one he had back in the days and which I fell in love with. I really wonder what will face me when I am at AM!'s concert in two months.

[Defender]

In what way do you disagree with his decision? Because of the different voice he most likely will end up with? Or because of something else?

I am against transgender,anyway but in this specific situation the different voice and appearance will cause many reactions by the fans. I don't think the majority of the fans will accept it or deal with it. I am not a fan of this group so I can't tell for sure but there 'll be probably criticism. As I said,it would be interesting to see what will happen,though.

[RageAndLov]

I am against transgender,anyway but in this specific situation the different voice will cause many reactions by the fans. I don't think the majority of the fans will accept it or deal with it. I am not a fan of this group so I can't tell for sure but there 'll be probably criticism. As I said,it would be interesting to see what will happen,though.

What's wrong with transgender in itself? If someone doesn't feel right in his or her own body, isn't it great that there is a way for them to be what they want and what they identify themselves as?

And whether or not the majority of fans will accept this, it kind of depends on how much the voice will change, if the change is noticeable at all. That's my biggest concern really. It's just shocking to hear him actually going through the process of transgender, because I have this image in my head of what Tom Gabel is, and that has been completely destroyed now.

I wonder how his wife deals with this. I know he said in his interview that she fully supported his choice, but I'm thinking, what about the physical attraction she presumably has for him? He is going to change his body in order to make it appear as a woman's, he might change the way he dresses and he might wear feminine make-up. She got attracted by a man and married him, but lives now with a woman. Of course, on the inside, Tom Gabel is the same person.

[Llamas]

Wow, very interesting news! I've got a lot to comment on here...

I guess you could say he stopped, took some time to think, and figured out what's important to her.

Sounds like she maaaaade a serious decision.

<3 u guise. I wonder if he's gonna shove this right back in their fucking face?

Edit: Relevant lyrics:

Ooh, very interesting! I love it when some minor, passing comment in lyrics turns out to be a major part of a singer's life much later...

Hmmm, interesting. Personally, I'm not sure how to take this situation. It seems like some kind of elaborate practical joke, mostly because of how out of the ordinary it appears. If it is indeed true, then that would be kinda interesting to see how it pans out. I wonder how this would effect Against Me! and their music.

Well, I doubt it'll affect their music at all... why would it? Unless you're simply talking about the timbre of his voice, which I'll comment on in a bit... but that's not gonna affect their music.

Lol. Davey self-identifies as male though doesn't he? But I definitely have wanted Davey to do my makeup for a very long time.

He's cisgender, for sure... but that man has amazing makeup skills. I could learn a lot from him

So a few people are concerned about how her voice will change, but others are saying how it won't change that much since puberty and testosterone already stretched the vocal cords. So most of the change would just be in singing style, if any. At least that's what I'm getting from all of this, correct me if I'm wrong.

If she takes hormone treatment (which is almost certain she will, because it's a pretty expected part of transition), her voice will change a bit. It'll become a bit softer and higher pitched. But trans people's voices never change entirely; she'll still have a fairly masculine-sounding voice. The change is really not that drastic.

"Tom Gabel of Against Me" was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter when news broke, just about all of it positive. Gives me hope.

Unfortunately, that's just because the people who know who Tom Gabel is are pretty much already gonna be liberal progressive folks, rather than bigots. (Get Kirk Cameron to have a sex change, and see how people react... oh, god, I just laughed inside at the thought of Kirk Cameron admitting this... hiding it all his life... it would make too much sense!)

Big fucking deal. If people are worried about preserving her 'he' voice, they'll have half a fucking mind and listen to the older record where they feel safe identifying a singer's gender through their tonal range.

It's gendering that feels safe because it's supposedly been brought into the realm of sex.

Supportive is good, but how has it become a point of worry whether someone 'sounds' like a woman? Old Against Me! (as much as I hated them) records will never go away, and perhaps more significantly, people are somehow jumping on the 'voice is gender bandwagon.' And that one does bother me.

To put my ease with gender/voice/register issue more into perspective, I present 'Boomerang,' by Serge Gainsbourg and reimagined by Etienne Daho and Dani -Found here. My (admittedly entirely personal) favorite example of singing that manages to ignore idiocies like whether someone sounds like a man or a woman.

Personally, I'll Judith Butler this one until the end of the day.

I agree, but I don't think anyone's freaking out about it. Just wondering. Hell, I'm curious about how his voice will change in the music, and I once dated a trans girl. :P Different voices have different affects on music. Simply following a male/female divide is dumb, but after a transition like this, the voice will change, and I understand why people are curious as to how.

I am against transgender,

People need to stop being concerned about things that have zero effect on them. "It's different from me! I don't understand it! Therefore, it's wrong."