Photographer Lindsay Morris has spent the last six years attending a traveling summer camp for LGBT and gender non-conforming children, documenting the annual weekend as a trailblazing and unprecedented opportunity for gender-creative children to express themselves in a safe and judgement-free way.
With the help of Kickstarter, she hopes to turn her work into a photo book and traveling exhibition that will bring visibility to the camp and help “nurture understanding” in parents that aren’t quite sure how to raise a gender non-conforming child.
The book, titled “You Are You”, aims to humanize the range of 5-12 year-old children that attend every year. “If I could give the outside world a glimpse into this very special place of acceptance, if everyone could experience this through these images,” she tells HuffPo, “they might gain some respect for the other person’s predicament.”
“The kids that attend camp are brave,” says a voice in the Kickstarter promo below. “These kids are boys in sparkly pink dresses that just want to be accepted for who they are.”
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“Camp helped me in a lot of ways,” a child’s voice chimes in, “and it helped me be more confident because I saw that there were other kids out there like me.”
For Morris’ full interview, head on over to HuffPo.
ingyaom
Perhaps “opposite gender-conforming” would be a better description of people who do conform to gender norms, just not their own.
toberlin
So beautiful…hope one day kids need no camps no more to feel that happy and confident.
asby
At that age i could barely tie my shoe…..
Mezaien
All six of my children2 girls four boys knows Dad, is a HOMO, non of my children are gays! you are!? or you are not!?.
jayj150
@ingyaom: I completely agree. A tomboy really is a gender-non conforming child. But a boy who calls himself ‘a girl’ simply because he likes what society considers ‘girly’ things is the very the embodiment of conformism.