My topic is exploring the environments we live in and how those factors may affect one’s sense of safety and mental health when their gender identity or expression is not cis or considered “normal.”

Leelah Alcorn was a trans teen who committed suicide due to her unaccepting environment. Even after her death, her family refused to accept Leelah’s identity.
Marsha P. Johnson was an African-American gay liberation activist and self-identified drag queen. Known as an outspoken advocate for gay rights, Johnson was one of the prominent figures of the Stonewall uprising in 1969. She was said to be the first one to start the uprising by throwing a shot glass at the mirror of the burning bar exclaiming, “I’ve got my civil rights!”
Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera during the 1973 NYC Gay Pride parade. Sylvia Ray Rivera was an American gay liberation and transgender activist and self-identified drag queen like Marsha. She was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance. Johnson and Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women of color.
Marsha P. Johnson, Joseph Ratanski and Sylvia Rivera in the 1973 NYC Gay Pride Parade by Gary LeGault
In my Bridge 1 piece I chose to depict trans model Hari Nef as the Virgin Mary. Mary has historically been a symbol of purity and perfect femininity that I wanted to depict a trans-woman in the same light.
Ren, the person pictured, is a trans-man that I’ve followed on Instagram and other platforms throughout his transition. He still chooses to wear makeup and dress femininely occasionally but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he is a man. I wrote about this image in one of my journals.