Sometimes a brighter future comes by destroying your past.

This past March, North Carolina passed its controversial HB2 law, or Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, which prevents transgender people from using certain bathrooms.



Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, and Pearl Jam have all canceled their recent NC concerts as a form of protest. Others, like Father John Misty and Against Me!, carried on and instead donated their profits to LGBTQ charities. Turns out the latter decided to take things a step farther than that.

On Sunday night, Against Me! played their scheduled show at the Motorco Music Hall in Durham, North Carolina, where frontwoman Laura Jane Grace protested the bill by taking a lighter to her birth certificate and watched it burst into flames — complete with a gleeful “Goodbye, gender!” adieu.

“I’m going to create an event around the show as a form of protest to say that despite whatever stupid laws they enact, trans people are not going to be scared,” Grace told Buzzfeed back in April. “They are not going to go away.” Tonight certainly showed she stood by her words, and in the most punk way possible.

Watch footage of the ceremonious burning, as captured by a fan, below.

I guess gender really is over since @LauraJaneGrace said goodbye to gender! #genderisover pic.twitter.com/EHXZJbMnM2 — Kathryn (@kwymer6) May 16, 2016