This series documents my own queer family and especially my partner, Macauley --: a transgender father raising a son. While some important images of LGBTQ parents exist, trans families with children are hugely underrepresented in photography. Right now, legislation is attacking health care for transgender people and limiting our ability to talk about queer and trans experience. Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric invokes the old stereotype that LGBTQ people can’t be trusted around children. This climate inspired me to document my own queer/trans family and to show the real people who are affected by these politics. My series also is a response to our broader societal ideas about masculinity: there aren’t that many photos of fathers being physically close and affectionate with their sons. My photos ask us to rethink masculinity and intimacy, as well as what makes a family. They are also meant to inspire younger LGBTQ audiences. Our visual record of LGBTQ life is generally focused on queer and trans liberation out in the clubs and the streets, or with documenting anti-LGBTQ violence and trauma. But LGBTQ life can be full of safety and comfort, and our domestic lives can be liberatory too. These photos (made with a Mamiya 645 on film) are produced by a queer/trans family and with our own sense of how we want to be represented. I’m not sure if making pictures will do much to turn the political tide, but I do know that our families need to be seen.
