Walking through Walking the Block

Thanks to a Facebook memory, I was reminded of the time my exhibit for Walking the Block at the LGBT Center in NYC was reviewed by the New Yorker.  This was Sept 2010.  When the review came out, I was somewhere in the middle of the United States, at about the halfway point in my 10,000+ mile solo road trip from Brooklyn to California and back to Brooklyn.  

I was on my Proud to Serve,  Kickstarter-funded road trip to meet, listen to, document, and share the stories of 46 LGBT Servicemembers who served in the US Military before and during “Don’t, Ask, Don’t Tell”.     Read blog entries from this date in 2010.

Now 12 years later, I am sitting in a  “former shit coop” which is now our “make shit shed” looking through the prints from WTB project.  These images were not on display at the LGBT Center, they were also at B.Hollyman Gallery in Austin, opening in the summer of 2011. This is where I met my wife, Kate (in ‘07) 6 years before Burnes would move into the front space of Wally Workman Gallery.   A year after my exhibit opened at B.Hollyman Gallery (06/11), Burnes would officiate our Texas wedding (9/22/12). Coming up on our ten-year anniversary!!  But this was our second ceremony, as we had eloped and were legally married several months before in NYC, as it was still not legal to get married in the state of Texas at the time. 

What has changed since I worked on these projects -  the laws, for now, as we see every day, there is a movement to take away the freedom of LGBTQI Americans.  While we LGBTQI people can marry, and serve in the military openly and proudly without being kicked out because of who we are or who we love. There are still people who live in fear because of where they live, because of who they are, because of who they love. I know this will always be the case, what we can do is share our, share their stories, what people fear is the unknown.  In the end, we are all human, we are all in search and in need of love. I don’t need you to understand me, or me you. What we all need is to be loved and accepted and free of judgment. 

Want to own a print of the Walking the Block exhibit? Head over to Paper Goods to see what’s available! 

A video walk through of the exhibit prints from Walking the Block (NYC & Austin).