Pronouns & Gendered Restrooms

The two-gender argument is a fabrication. Gender fluidity has always existed but is being weaponized.The project combats misinformation and fear mongering and gives voice to individuals that have been targeted by vilification and violence.

Gender fluidity has long been misunderstood and shunned as taboo by many in society. Until recently, this has left trans/non-binary people with few positive representations of their identity. Through my work, trans/non-binary people welcome viewers to see their lives through portraiture and dialogue, creating a space for wholeness and affirmation while documenting their strength and resilience

Public restrooms can be uncomfortably dangerous and sometimes fatal places for trans-identifying and gender-nonconforming persons. Too often these spaces have become scenes of violence and hate. Across the country, bathroom usage has become highly politicized, making these public places more threatening for gender-nonconforming persons. Bathroom access, which should be an unquestioned right for every person, has become a political battleground in America fought over the bodily needs and security of trans-identifying people.

To help push back against this growing violence, this body of work presents an intimate and affirming look at trans and non-binary people in public bathrooms through portraiture and audio, providing a platform to share the conflict they endure planning their day around a biological function, while refusing to be compartmentalized, objectified, or sensationalized. The audio recordings, presented in book form as a QR code, are as much an integral part of this project as the closely cropped portraits. The subject’s direct gaze usually at the viewer allows the subjects to unapologetically share the evolution of their pronouns, as well as how their pronouns have impacted relationships with their communities at home and at work. In many ways, this project allows a marginalized community to have a place in our visual and oral history and gives voice to a part of society that has been targeted by vilification and violence.

This project counters the politicalization of gender expression and attacks on individual freedoms that trans and non-binary people are facing, particularly in the context of restroom use. To do so, it gives the viewer an intimate entry into the experience of anxiety that trans folx feel planning their day around a biological function. This has expanded to include cis-butch-lesbians who continue to be harassed and thrown out of public restrooms, usually since childhood. The project combats misinformation and fear mongering by giving voice, body, and face to a section of society that has become an object and a target in today's culture war. This body of work is meant to invite allies in the broader community by reminding the cis-gendered majority that trans and non-binary people are our neighbors, co-workers and friends. Public restrooms and the right to peecasts non-gender conforming individuals into the public view on their own terms and highlights the risks these individuals take every day just to use a public bathroom — a privilege that most people take for granted by reminding the cis-gendered majority that trans and non-binary people are our neighbors, co-workers and friends. Public restrooms and the right to peecasts non-gender conforming individuals into the public view on their own terms and highlights the risks these individuals take every day just to pee in a public bathroom — a privilege that most people take for granted.