Schedule Exhibitions:
Now Travel all across North America
Stonewall Columbus - Columbus, Ohio (November 19, 2022 - January 3, 2023)
St. Matthew Think, Love, Pray House - Westerville, Ohio (February 11 - 18, 2023)
Studio West 117 - Lakewood, Ohio (March 31 - April 30, 2023)
Friendly City Safe Space - Harrisonburg, VA (May 12, 2023)
First City Pride Center - Savannah, GA (June 24, 2023 - July 22, 2023)
Brooklyn Community Pride Center - Crown Heights - Brooklyn, NY (May 26 - June 30, 2023)
Milwaukee LGBT Community Center - Milwaukee, WI (July 15 - August 19, 2023)
North Las Vegas Equality Center - North Las Vegas, NV (November 10, 2023 - November 25, 2023)
Interested in hosting an exhibition, email me today!
What is the project about?
This project was started at the beginning of 2022 as a way to bring visibility and awareness to transgender people of all forms. Transgender can be mistakenly thought of as a binary concept in which a person has to transition from one binary gender to the other, aka male to female or female to male. Stigmas surrounding the community have pushed a belief that a transgender person is only valid if they transition fully with the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and gender confirming surgeries. While some transgender people transition in this way, I am seeking to bring to light that transgender is an umbrella that covers an array of identities; and that each is unique, beautiful and fully valid. Participants in this project have been photographed as they are, showing the world that they are completely valid in their unique and diverse transgender identity and presentation. All participants have contributed their personalities, their identities, their compassion, and their desire to see a world that truly accepts and loves them for the beautiful humans that they are.
How can I become involved?
If you are a transgender individual and would like to participate in the portrait galley, simply message NV either on social media or here on the website.
We will meet up and capture a photographed portrait of you, as you feel most euphoric.
If you are in or near Columbus, OH, I have a home studio that we can use to capture your portrait. If you are in another state, I will host open portrait days when I travel with the exhibition.
The gallery will continue on across the country and will continue to capture more and more individuals.
If you are an organization that would like to get involved or would like to learn more, please contact Mx. Vincent-Natasha Gay by email at natashagay09@gmail.com. You can also follow along via Instagram at @nv.gay and @mx.gay_photography
How is this project different from other Transgender galleries?
“This is Trans” is a project that was built upon two fundamental ideas; education and inclusion. Other transgender galleries and projects have done an incredible job beginning the discussion and showing the world that being transgender is beautiful. This project seeks to break down stigmas that have plagued the transgender community and bring together the incredible diversity within the community. Several participants in this project joined in because they had been told that they are not transgender for multiple reasons; but mainly due to the gatekeeping within the community. To be transgender was thought to be a person who needed to transition socially and medically from one binary gender to the other, aka male to female or female to male. To be validated as a transgender person, you had to pass all of the necessary tests, socially live within the binary gender norms, and have all medical procedures including surgeries and hormones. While it is true that some transgender people do live authentically like this; it is completely false to mandate that all transgender people must live this way to be valid. This is Trans seeks to show that being transgender is an umbrella term, and simply means to identify differently than the assigned gender/sex you were assigned at birth. This includes a wide array of beautiful and diverse individuals, who only seek to live authentically and be validated for their transgender identity.
Below are just some of the portraits in the gallery, along with their answer to the question "what does being trans mean to you?"
