Laura Jane Grace is guiding us through the discography of beloved UK anarchist punks Crass when security interrupts us.

A chocolate Lab starts to sniff around the curtains and scattered Christmas lights that decorate a dressing room in downtown Des Moines, Iowa’s Wells Fargo Arena, where Grace’s band Against Me! will be playing in a few hours. “This is the daily dog sweep,” she explains with a shrug. “2017.”

After a few minutes, man and beast leave the room, but Grace is still annoyed by the intrusion. “It’s like that scene in Minority Report where we’re having a conversation, and then all of a sudden our hands are against the wall,” she says. “Talk about your civil rights being taken away.”

The 36-year-old is in a great mood as she sips fortified water and radiates joy. Soon, she’ll be taking on intolerance and mindless conformity with politically charged punk rock in front of thousands while opening for her teenage heroes, Green Day. “It is never lost on me onstage,” says Grace, considering her enviable current status in rock’s ecosystem. “This is damn awesome.”

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Her positivity is hardwon. As Against Me! honed their raucous punk protests into anthems big enough to play in arenas across the last 20 years, they endured more than their share of narrow-minded backlash.

Tires were slashed. Concert merch was doused with bleach. In 2012, things became even more complicated when Grace came out as transgender, going public about her lifelong battle with gender dysphoria. But through it all, they’re still here.