Maybe you don't know who a person is just based on the way they dress. I know that's a really simple thing you're supposed to be taught really young, but sometimes you can forget.
— Laura Jane Grace
When I was 19 or 20, the way I was an activist was by regularly meeting with groups, going to protests, and being there on the ground.
Fred Durst gave my first wife a tattoo of a star on the bottom of her foot when she was 14 years old in his trailer home. So that was my first introduction to Limp Bizkit.
The key to being a great band that lasts is always going to be making sure you write really good songs and put on really good shows.
There were definitely songs in the past that were me dealing with living this gender dysphoria, and sometimes they were really direct and no one picked up on it - but oftentimes, they were more veiled in metaphor.
People don't have to understand a language to understand the emotion and sentiment behind a song.
I've always wanted to be a writer, and I've kept journals since I was eight years old.
Growing up, I never had a role model to show me that you can be trans and live a happy life. I hope that I can be that source of hope for someone out there who's struggling.
Society doesn't portray transsexual people in a very positive light.
I grew up in Italy, so for me, Naples pizza is the only type of pizza that there really is.
I fear cops and have never felt the protection of them.
I don't feel like I've ever been in mainstream society.
I like the idea that the body is a vessel, that it's not necessarily representative of the real you that's inside of it.
Growing up, my experience with transsexualism was nothing but shame. It was something very hidden, and dealt with very privately.
Writing your memoir is inherently narcissistic.
I had gone from being married with a kid, two cars, garage, nice house in a nice neighborhood to all of it gone.
I don't want to be just that transgender performer or that transgender musical artist. I want to create songs and art and have those be judged on their merit alone.
The period of time between when you're done with a record and when you start touring is the worst period of a time in a musician's life.
I'm a musician and I listen to music all the time. If there's something out there where someone would tell me that I should listen to, I would listen to it.
I had definitely stopped watching MTV by 2000.
Hormone replacement therapy does not change or affect your voice. And I have no problem with my voice: I really like my singing voice, I don't feel any dysphoria with my talking voice.
What I learned early on, is that it's not really fun to do things alone.
I'm just me and if me being honest about who I am and putting myself out there in that way makes connections with people and helps people out, that's just repaying the favor of music because that's what music does for me.
Being able to write about love through a trans lens is something that's not really represented when it comes to love songs.
If I want someone to recognize the gender identity I feel, I'd have to ask for that. I can't assume people will know how I'd like to be treated on their own.
My favorite video game when I was a kid was this game called 'Metroid' and the main character of 'Metroid' was Samus. Samus has this body armor suit, helmet and everything except at the end of the game, the helmet comes off and it was revealed that Samus was actually a woman.
Chicago prides itself on being a mean city.
As a trans person, I don't feel welcome in most public spaces. Especially now with Trump, I don't feel faith or recognize that we're protected by the government or administration.
A lot of people don't perceive me as female or trans, they just see some rocker.
I'd never have imagined it when I was younger. A trans woman on the cover of 'Time?' That is unfathomable to the 15-year-old me.
I look like a dude and feel like a dude, and it sucks. But eventually I'll flip, and I'll present as female.
Trying to cause chaos - I think that's the way I create change.
I feel self-conscious for even having met so many other band people and artists, I don't want to be that artist that is only able to talk about themselves and their own band. I don't want to be that person. I'd rather just be quiet than be that person.
Every musician out there wants to be judged on the merit of their songwriting, the merit of their performing abilities.
I just want to play shows and write songs and make music. That's what feels good.
The idea of Ryley Walker not ever listening to Leonard Cohen is like me going out to dinner and them telling me that they've never had spaghetti or whatever.
It would be weird enough just being in a band trying to date. It makes it harder being a parent. And it makes it really interesting when you're trans.
My earliest memories are of dysphoria.
Striving to make music that empowers people as opposed to making them feel like they're being beaten down every single day is so important.
I recognize that I'm in a band, and part of being in a band is doing interviews, and I do have a platform so I want to use that platform to talk about things that are real.
I'm totally fine with myself. It's the other people I run into out there who are so hung up on gender. The way it trips them up is their problem, not mine.
I was always attracted to women.
To me, the songs that I'm most thankful to have been a part of creating are the songs that are able to adapt and change over the years and that mean different things to you at different periods of time in your life.
My first record I ever got was 'Full Moon Fever.' My dad gave me a copy when I was maybe nine years old or something. And I listened to the heck out of that record. I loved that record.
I remember being really young - being 13 or 14 - when I first was really excited about punk rock as an idea, and I was like, ‘Don't ever not be punk. Don't ever not be punk.' Telling that to myself, I guess it was like self-defense against the scary world around me.
As technology and science advances, I think the ability to alter yourself should be embraced.
I've never had trouble talking and expressing my feelings.
I felt more and more like I was putting on an act - like I was being shoved into this role of ‘angry white man in a punk band.'
Eating's really important before getting tattooed. You need energy.
I never get to forget who I am, my gender identity.
