'This Is Trans' photo exhibit helps local trans people feel confident in their own skin

“Now that I can live as my true self, I can present my best self and hopefully inspire others to do so also.”

“It makes my world bigger, and brighter, and stranger, and so much more worth living in because I get to be me for it.”

“… after 47 years of simply existing, I now feel alive.”

These are the feelings of a few of the more than 200 transgender people whose photographs and words are featured in the photography exhibition “This Is Trans.”

The traveling exhibition — which will be at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center through Aug. 18 — is the creation of Ohio photographer Vincent-Natasha Gay.

Gay said they first got the idea for the exhibition in 2021 after being criticized on social media for identifying as transgender without having “fully medically transitioned from male to female."

“For a very long time, to be trans was thought of as a binary transition,” Gay said. “You would have to do everything, have the surgeries, be on the hormones, to go from one part of the binary to the other part of the binary.”

Gay — who has "gradually transitioned into more nonbinary transgender identity" — said it's "perfect and awesome" for some transgender people to transition from one end of the gender binary to the other, but "it's not what everyone needs."

“I want to raise awareness that to be trans simply means you identify your gender differently than you were assigned at birth,” Gay said. “There are so many beautiful, unique, valid ways to do that. The only correct way to be transgender is the way you are.”

Expressing their joy

“Coming out paved the road back to myself.”

“… being able to be genuine and confident in my own skin has opened so many doors for me.”

“… I’m able to finally feel comfortable in my own skin … ”

Gay worked with the Stonewall Columbus community organization in Ohio to find transgender people in Columbus who wanted to take part in the exhibition. They quickly decided to open up the opportunity to people across the country and soon had people flying to Ohio to take part.

Gay set up photo shoots for the participants and asked them to answer the question, “What does being trans mean to you?”

For the exhibit, each person's chosen photo is displayed above their words, some which are as succinct as a single line saying, "It's simply me," and others that are full paragraphs expressing their feelings about being transgender.

Gay said 90% of the participants have never had professional photographs taken and that it’s important for each person to feel comfortable, happy and that their true selves are shown in the final photos.

“This is different from what happens in most exhibitions because I'm not the one who chooses the final photo that is exhibited, and I work with participants to make sure we get the right photo even if it means we redo the shoot,” said Gay. “I’m determined to make sure the photos represent the unique, beautiful people they are. I want to make sure you feel their euphoria, their joy.”

Jessica Henning — a Milwaukee trans woman who had her photograph taken by Gay last year — attended the opening of the photo exhibition at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center on July 15.

“Just look at the light of the people’s eyes in the photos,” Henning said as she pointed to some. “You can see it.”

When Henning did her photo shoot with Gay, she had just begun her physical transition, a process that she planned to begin in 2020 but was delayed by the pandemic.

She said that Gay's photograph captured the joy she felt at having started her physical transition. Henning had always felt supported and loved by her wife, whom she's known for decades. Because she had a strong support system, Henning hadn't realized the extent to which she felt trapped before her physical transition.

"There's this shift that you don't anticipate. Six weeks into hormone replacement therapy, I was just overwhelmed by this feeling of comfort that I hadn't felt before," she said. "Even before people could see the changes externally, I was waking up and smiling for no reason. I realized that it took so much for me to feel joy before; now it's effortless."

Helping trans people find their voice

“It’s being the person who I wish I would’ve had growing up and telling me it was okay to be myself authentically.”

“Having the confidence to be the human and trans role model that I desperately needed when I was younger.”

“I have to operate with compassion and empathy in order to make a way for others to not just exist. I need them to thrive.”

Many of the participants in the photo exhibit expressed not just their own joy at being able to portray their true selves, but also a sense of responsibility to the wider transgender community to advocate for those who feel silenced.

"I feel like I finally have a voice. For a long time I was quiet, but now I'm on social media advocating for people who have questions," Henning said. "For transgender people, it's a big step to talk to people like counselors about how they're feeling, and it's sometimes easier to start with someone who has had that same feeling, too."

When Gay sets up photo shoots — which are ongoing during the exhibitions — they encourage participants to bring props, wear clothing or suggest settings that reflect integral parts of their personalities.

"I want to try to make it an experience about who that person is, that their gender identity is just one part of them, just like anybody else," Gay said.

Gay and Henning both see that humanizing message as vital in the current political climate where hundreds of bills that limit transgender people's rights have been introduced and passed throughout the country.

"The most important message is that we're just people living our lives like anyone else," Henning said. "We're not trying to infringe on anything else that anyone else has. We're just being who we are."

Bringing 'This Is Trans' to Milwaukee

The opportunity to show photographs of trans people who are "just being people" was a key reason Ricardo Galaviz of the Milwaukee LGBT Center jumped at the chance to bring "This Is Trans" to Milwaukee when he heard about it.

In the past, the community center — which hosts a variety of programs and social opportunities for LGBTQ people — held one fundraising gala each year.

Galaviz has been working to do several fundraising events every year, ones that are more accessible and more engaging for the larger community than a typical fundraising gala.

He decided to coordinate the opening of the "This is Trans" exhibit with the center's first fundraising fashion show; the fashion show's theme — "All Types Accepted" — meshed well with the photo exhibition.

"They both have a very specific message, that all types are accepted — all genders, all abilities, all colors," Galaviz said. "At these events, people who maybe have never met a trans person before can see the photos, meet the models and have the mystery taken out of it."

That's exactly the message Gay wants to convey with the exhibit. When they took "This Is Trans" to Virginia, a professor Gay knew brought her husband to see it.

"I got a call the day after. She wanted to tell me why they had had to leave the show early," they said. "She told me her husband, a cisgender man, had broken down crying and said, 'I needed to see this. With everything going on, I needed to see who transgender people really are.'

"When you take the time to look through the photos and read the quotes, you feel like you're talking to the person, like you're getting to know them," Gay said. "I want people to see that the only thing that defines a person is that person, and that to be trans is just another part of humanity."

If you go

The "This Is Trans" photo exhibition will be at the Milwaukee LGBT Community Center, 315 W. Court St., through Aug. 18. People can see the exhibition during the center's hours, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Vincent-Natasha Gay is still adding photos to their exhibition; if transgender people would like to take part, they can contact Gay through their website at vincent-natasha.com. There's also an exhibition photo book available for purchase on the website.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'This Is Trans' photo exhibit at LGBT center promotes self-acceptance