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'Transcending Love:' New Photo Exhibit In Wilton Manors Highlights Transgender, Non-Binary Couples

Photographer Barbara Proud stands with her portrait of a couple named Jake and Hannah, that she took while they were on vacation in New York. It's part of her new show called Transcending Love.
Caitie Switalski
/
WLRN
Photographer Barbara Proud stands with her portrait of a couple named Jake and Hannah, that she took while they were on vacation in New York. It's part of her new show called Transcending Love.

A new photography exhibit at the Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Wilton Manors aims to give transgender and non-binary couples a platform to tell their stories and show them living their everyday lives, posing with their families in the setting of their choice. 

The exhibit is called "Transcending Love: Portraits of Transgender and Non-Binary Couples." 

Barbara Proud is the photographer behind the project. A lesbian herself, she goes by the name B. Proud.

"...Because, why not?" she said. 

 Listen to the audio version of this story.

Proud, a career photographer, also teaches at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She said her Transcending Love project, is really a second iteration of her first project, called, "First Comes Love: Portraits of Enduring LGBTQ Relationships," which went on display in South Florida shortly after the 2016 presidential election. 

"The first project really served as a calling card," Proud said. "It let people know that while I wasn't necessarily a part of the transgender community, I wanted to help the transgender community - and that I would do it with integrity."

Proud is based in Delaware with her wife. She traveled to almost 30 states to meet and photograph 60 couples for the new project, 18 of which are hung up in Wilton Manors.

The show will be on display, until mid-February of next year.

Proud said she wants to make it clear that she does not want to act as a spokesperson for the community:

"The trans and non-binary community has been misunderstood, under-protected, under-loved, under-represented, and thrown under the bus," she said. "I'm just a conduit. I'm offering them a platform to shout about who they are." 

The 18 portraits on display are meant to showcase the breadth of the couples Proud sat with. (The others can be viewed in a digital slideshow.)

Read More: 'Stonewall: 50 Years In The Fight For Equality' Exhibit In Wilton Manors Marks LGBTQ Anniversary

"My goal was to show as much diversity as possible within the project…ethnic diversity, socio-economic diversity, age diversity, geographic diversity," she said. "I want to be able to say, 'America: this is your neighbor.' Just say, 'hello.'" 

Owen And Blue

 

Photographer Barbara Proud, right, poses with the portrait she took of Owen and Blue, two transgender men about to welcome their first child. It's currently on display in Wilton Manors.
Credit Caitie Switalski / WLRN
/
WLRN
Photographer Barbara Proud, right, poses with the portrait she took of Owen and Blue, two transgender men about to welcome their first child. It's currently on display in Wilton Manors.

The first portrait Proud photograpghed in the series shows two transgender men, Owen and Blue. They are in an embrace, and Owen was pregnant at the time, about to welcome their first baby. 

"They're both touching the belly - their child to be. And you just know they're thinking about what their family will be like and how much they love each other, and how much they will love this child," Proud said. 

Transgender Awareness Month

Deputy Director of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives, Emery Grant, said the exhibit was purposefully opened during Trangender Awareness Month, observed in November.

"Sometimes I think we see examples to two extremes: we see activists, or models or entertainers who have transitioned who may have a lot of wealth and privilege to be very visible and look a certain way," Grant said. "Then we may see the other extreme which is: desperate poverty, or the murder of trans women of color, inparticular."

"We don't always have an opportunity to learn... about, I'll say, sort of everyday trans and non-binary people, and what are their families like?" Grant said. "So we can really start to talk about the lived experiences of transgender people in the United States."

Grant also said, Proud's exhibit opens the door for even people inside of the lesbian, gay and bisexual community in South Florida to be more compasisonate towards the transgender community in the acronym, LGBT.

"These stories unfold with a lot of passion and detail and they're very inspiring," Grant said. "This is a unique opportunity to use this exhibit to humanize transgender people in our local Wilton Manors community, and in South Florida as a whole."

As Proud said: "The 'T' is not silent."

Proud estimates that her waiting list is over 100 couples long. She hopes to keep traveling to photograph them, but admits the travel is expensive and grant money she has been applying for hasn't come her way, like she'd hoped. 

"That slows things down a little bit," she said. "I know all of these couples are hoping that this will be a book, and I do too."

Copyright 2019 WLRN 91.3 FM

Caitie Switalski is a rising senior at the University of Florida. She's worked for WFSU-FM in Tallahassee as an intern and reporter. When she's in Gainesville for school, Caitie is an anchor and producer for local Morning Edition content at WUFT-FM, as well as a digital editor for the station's website. Her favorite stories are politically driven, about how politicians, laws and policies effect local communities. Once she graduates with a dual degree in Journalism and English,Caitiehopes to make a career continuing to report and produce for NPR stations in the sunshine state. When she's not following what's happening with changing laws, you can catchCaitielounging in local coffee shops, at the beach, or watching Love Actually for the hundredth time.