White Crosses

This is the title track from Florida punk rock band Against Me!'s fifth studio album. Frontperson Laura Jane Grace (before her transition from Tom Gabel) wrote the tune while living in St. Augustine, Florida, around the corner from a field of small, crooked crosses that served as an anti-abortion memorial on the lawn of the Prince Of Peace Votive Church. There was one cross to represent every abortion that happens in America every day, statistically. In a 2010 Songfacts interview with Grace, she described this as a "pro-choice song," and said, "Around the corner from the house I was living in, which was off of San Marco Avenue, north of downtown, there was a church and on the lawn they had placed 4000 wooden white crosses, each about a foot high off the ground. It was called 'The Cemetery Of The Innocent.' There was a big billboard covered with pictures of children's faces that explained the crosses where placed to represent every abortion that happens in America every day. I hated those f--king crosses. So what I was trying to say with the song was that I want to smash all those white crosses. Cryptic huh?"

White Crosses is the first Against Me! album to feature George Rebelo, former drummer of Hot Water Music. He replaced previous drummer Warren Oakes, who left the band to stay at home in Florida, partly in order to focus on his Mexican restaurant, Boca Fiesta.