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Gaysian Faces is an Anthropology Queer Photography Project that has just launched their website – http://www.gaysianfaces.com. The website focuses on the members of the LGBTI community who identify as Asian. The project was inspired by a book called “Part Asian/100% Hapa” by Kip Fulbeck. As a platform to give a voice to the LGBTI community, Gaysian Faces highlights various individuals from the community. A headshot of an individual is used, and the person is given a piece of paper to write down a statement about who he/she is. The individual can write anything as it is a means to be creative!
Gaysian Faces kicked off on 27 August and is founded by Peta Cooper, a former board member of Trikone, the oldest LGBTQ South Asian organisation (founded in San Francisco). She comes from a radio and journalist background. Currently, Peta resides in West London and works in Social media management. The first person to be featured on the site was Ibrahim, who was featured on CH4’s “Muslim Drag Queens”. Peta had met Ibrahim at a “Birmingham South Asian LGBT – Finding a Voice” social meet up in March, and approached him about the new platform. The second person featured is Khakan Qureshi, who founded Birmingham South Asian LGBT – Finding a Voice support/social group.
Peta Cooper, the founder of Gaysian Faces, explained,
“The beautiful aspect of Gaysian Faces, it’s not just for Gaysians who are out to their friends and family, but it’s also for members of the community who are not out, but would like their voices to be heard.”
All of their pictures and stories will be featured on Gaysian Faces social media pages. Every Thursday a new picture/story will go up. The goal is to showcase Gaysians from all around the world and create an e-book. In December, Peta will visit San Francisco (her hometown) to take pictures of Gaysians in California. For members of the community who are not out, Peta encourages them to cover their face in creative way.
Peta further elaborated,
“Maybe one year or five years down the line, they might come out their love ones and they’ll look back on this project to see how far they’ve come.“Coming out is a very personal and private journey, there’s no expiration date.”
We wish the platform all the best!
https://www.facebook.com/gaysianfaces
http://www.twitter.com/GaysianFaces
