As lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of Against Me!, Grace has been an electrifying torchbearer of punk in the new millennium. The punk staples of radicalism, rebellion, and the embrace of the outsider run through the band’s fiery, guitar-driven songs that get blown out to the limits in live shows through sheer volume, both from the stage and from the band’s devoted fan community. Yet when the music is unplugged, the distortion dissipated, what remains are beautifully crafted songs that tell a much more personal story.

Against Me!’s last studio album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, brings to the forefront what had been an undercurrent on earlier records. Grace has since become a powerful voice for gender-variant people and has candidly explored her experiences in interviews, her Emmy-nominated web series True Trans, and, of course, her music.