Video: Laura Jane Grace on why she decided to transition

You might believe that it was brave of Laura Jane Grace, the lead singer of punk band Against Me!, to begin her transition away from life as Tom Gabel and come out in 2012 as a transgendered woman—but she doesn’t think so.

“This isn’t my quote—this is someone else’s—but it’s like running through the woods being chased by a bear, and then you finally get inside this cabin and you slam the door behind you and someone says, ‘Wow, you’re really brave,’ ” she says. “But you’re like, ‘I was running for my life back there!'”

Grace and her band, which released the critically acclaimed album Transgender Dysphoria Blues last year, were in Toronto for World Pride Week last week. In the video below, Grace opens up to Maclean’s about how her daughter has handled the change, and the forces that helped her decide that she needed to transition.