Against Me! singer Laura Jane Grace criticizes Arcade Fire music video

In the video, The Amazing Spider-Man’s Andrew Garfield plays a young man exploring his sexuality. Garfield’s character dresses as a woman and visits a redneck bar where she is asked to dance by a rough-looking man.

The situation turns violent as a group of men begin to attack Garfield. The men then disappear, and character dances in a dream-like state. Four other performers in similar dress join her, and then show her the way to Arcade Fire’s Coachella performance. There, the character rises above the hate and dances on the stage to the crowd's roaring approval.

Grace said on Twitter on May 22 that she believes the video inaccurately plays on and perpetuates stereotypes. She said if the song were not titled ‘We exist’, she would not see a problem.

“it’s called ‘We exist’ and there is literally no signs of that existence represented,” Grace tweeted. Grace also suggested the song should have been called ‘They exist’.

Arcade Fire front man Win Butler defended the video in an interview with The Advocate.

Butler told The Advocate that they wrote the song in Jamaica where Butler said the band felt a “homophobic undercurrent” and saw the threat of violence in gay people’s lives.

“For a gay kid in Jamaica to see the actor who played Spider-Man in that role is pretty damn powerful, in my opinion,” Butler said.

Video director David Wilson, who is a member of the gay community, told The Advocate he was unsure of the casting pick at first, and he had asked himself whether they should be using a transgender actor.

Wilson said he was convinced by Garfield's passion.

“For an actor of that caliber to be that emotionally invested in a music video is just a very special thing. It just completely made sense,” Wilson said.

Grace was less than pacified by the Wilson and Butler’s explanation, and she called the article “hella problematic” on Twitter.

Grace tweeted on May 24 it was unlikely poor Jamaican LGBT youth would be empowered by “a cis, straight white male actor in movies that can’t afford to see stars in a music video they’ll never watch.”

Grace later tweeted that a discussion between herself and transgender classical pianist and songwriter Our Lady J, who coached Andrew Garfield for his performance in the video, gave her perspective on the video.

“Andrew & I saw the character as a young man who is exploring his gender, not a realized trans woman,” Our Lady J tweeted to Grace on May 24.

Yet, Grace still stands firm on her initial statement. She tweeted back and forth yesterday with a fan about her thoughts on the future of Trans actors.

“not pessimism, it’s the way it is. Cis people always get Trans roles and it’s never other way around,” Grace tweeted.

Watch the video for 'We exist' below.