faithfully lgbt
Skills Utilized
Graphic Design
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Photography
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Photo Editing
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Project Management
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Interviewing & Schedule Coordination
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Graphic Design • Photography • Photo Editing • Project Management • Interviewing & Schedule Coordination •
Destroying stereotypes and creating new narratives on faith & sexuality.
Religious and LGBTQ communities are often framed as being at odds with each other. Often, the narrative goes something like this:
"You can be queer, or you can be Christian, but not both."
That, however, is a false choice, and the very existence of LGBTQ people of faith proves it. Being part of organizations like the Gay Christian Network (now known as Q Christian Fellowship) and The Reformation Project, I knew there were deeper stories to tell about faith, doubt, sexuality, marriage, and gender identity.
As it turns out, activist Eliel Cruz felt the same way. In creating #FaithfullyLGBT, he sought to highlight individual LGBTQ people of faith, chipping away at negative stereotypes, one story at a time.
While attending the same faith conferences and events, Eliel and I contacted attendees who were willing to be photographed and tell their story. After getting our schedules aligned, I then took their headshot, conducted a brief interview with each of them, and turned their individual stories into the social graphics that became #FaithfullyLGBT.
The visibility of these photo stories was greatly amplified after Buzzfeed, Logo News (formerly NewNowNext), and HuffPost shared them, with an estimated initial reach of at least 1.2 million.
Later, around the same time that the film Boy Erased shed light on the horrors of conversion therapy, the headshot I took of Darren Calhoun for #FaithfullyLGBT was also published in PEOPLE magazine.
For all the ignorance that runs rampant in many religious communities, there are also patient, gracious, and thoughtful individuals who are courageous enough to keep telling the truth. They are the ones who compel everyone else to embrace nuance, to challenge their own assumptions, and to act out of love, rather than fear.
That's the way LGBTQ people of faith make the world better. And as a designer and photographer, it was an honor to shed light on their stories.
