06/29/2023
With Pride month coming to an end I wanted to share what it means to me as a photographer, as a Mom, as a HUMAN! 🏳️🌈 Thanks for taking the time to read and learning a little bit about me.
I grew up in a small town in the south and when I looked around I didn’t see anything other than heterosexual couples. That was the “normal” way. When I was thirteen I felt my heart do that tingly thing when I laid eyes on my first crush. SHE WAS SO BEAUTIFUL! Her heart was kind, her eyes were sincere and all I wanted to do was be near her. This story sounds like a dream so far right? Maybe it could’ve been, however remember this is 20 years ago in a small town so it was “not normal” and “not okay” for me to feel this way about a girl. I started thinking something was wrong with me and I fought these feelings and hid them from everyone. I thought to myself “Would I be rejected from my friends?” “Would my family still love me?” “Why am I this way?” “Why can’t I just be ‘NORMAL’?!” So I just shoved it down and pretended like that part of me didn’t exist. I just went through middle school and high school thinking about that girl and telling myself I was wrong for feeling that way every time I looked at her. From the outside looking in, I had a typical teenage experience. Expect for the fact that in the back of my head for 6+ years I told myself that something was wrong with me every time my heart fluttered when I felt something more than friendship for a girl. I still remember what it felt like to suppress those feelings, I slowly convinced myself to hate myself for loving. It took many years to recover from this self inflicted hate I had put on myself just because I wasn’t “normal”. I finally came out as a le***an after I moved to a bigger city for college and it felt like a ton of bricks had lifted off my shoulders. I felt so free and started the healing process to loving myself for who I was after years of fighting and suppressing it. After I came out it opened my world to both love and hate. Love from a community that had been through similar experiences and hate from a society that just wanted me to go back to being “normal”. If I held my girlfriends hand in public we would get looks of disgust as if something was wrong with us. There I was finally starting loving myself fully for who I was and loving someone else and at every turn more hate was waiting. I hated myself for who I was for most my teenage years then as soon as I accept myself, now the world hates me for who I am… Now I could go on for pages but I have a reason for sharing this small but significant portion of my past.
Pride means many things to me, one is visibility. Acceptance, love, and encouragement for individuals who are just being themselves. No one should have to feel like they need to suppress who they are or who they love. As a Mom I will make sure my children know that they are accepted and loved no matter what they grow into. As a photographer I want to display all kinds of love, all body types, all genders, all people. I want my clients to know that they will always have a safe space with me. I hope to photograph more LGBT+ couples and display their love too. ALL LOVE IS IMPORTANT and deserves to be shared!
I have the equality symbol tattooed on my arm because I am proud of this part of ME. I am Q***R and I accept myself! I also have found my life partner and him being a man doesn’t change my sexuality, and I know this confuses some people. I want to also encourage all people to ask questions if you don’t understand something. It is so much easier to educate yourself rather than judge someone else’s experiences. Even after educating yourself you still might not understand, but you can still love and you can still accept. A smile at someone different than you rather than a look of disgust might just change someones life.
Feel free to share ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
