Tom Gabel, lead singer of the punk rock group Against Me!, has decided to accept her gender identity and begin living life as a woman named Laura Jane Grace.

Gabel told Rolling Stone she will soon start undergoing hormone replacement therapy and electrolysis treatment having made public her lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria.

"For me, the most terrifying thing about this was how she [her wife Heather] would accept the news," Gabel told the publication. "But she's been super-amazing and understanding." The two plan to stay married.

To longtime followers of the band, the news might come as less of a surprise, having memorized the lyrics to 2007's "The Ocean," in which the singer belts "If I could have chosen, I would have been born a woman / My mother once told me she would have named me Laura / I would grow up to be strong and beautiful like her."

Though Rolling Stone asserts that "this is the first time a major rock star has come out as transgender," industrial music fans will undoubtedly be familiar with Genesis P-Orridge, front woman of the legendary Throbbing Gristle, who was born Neil Andrew Megson.

Gabel's full interview hits stands this Friday.

[photo via AP]