PHOTOS: “Queer Youth” Photo Series Captures New Era Of Teen Revolutionaries

“I was a gay teen myself, and it was sort of a tough time, in the ’80s, to be a gay teen,” photographer M. Sharkey tells Queerty. “I wished things had been different, and that I had had the opportunity to be more open about my sexuality. And I felt like this was an opportunity for me to give voice to some of these kids who were demanding to be heard.”

Queer Kids: Coming Out In America is a documentary photography exhibit by M. Sharkey runs through January 4, 2015 at Stonewall National Museum in Wilton Manors, FL.

Sharkey began shooting the editorial portraits in the early 2000s. He found his subjects through LGBT organizations like GLSEN or high school GSAs, as well as online networks like Myspace.

“As far as I’m aware, we’ve never had ‘queer kids’ in human history,” he explains. “And by ‘queer kids’ I mean a self-identified group of young people that fall outside the normative expressions of sexuality and gender. It is wholly new and because of that I felt — and continue to feel–an immense amount of responsibility to portray this radical — I would even say revolutionary — community in the most honest and thoughtful way possible.”

Sharkey says he hopes audiences walk away with a better basic understanding of queer youth today.

“There is nothing terribly complicated about the project,” he continues. “It is simply a portrait of a group of people that have come to a point in history, in their history, where they insist on being seen and heard for who they are. That’s it. Take it or leave it. Where you once perhaps didn’t have a clue about who these people were or what their lives were like, now hopefully you do.”

Scroll down for a sampling from Queer Kids, and see more of M. Sharkey’s work on his Instagram page and website.

Published for one-time use only with permission from M. Sharkey. Photographs may not be saved, copied or republished on any other website.

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Graham Gremore

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Imagine If Hedwig And Rocky Balboa Had A Drag Queen Love Child

Writer/director Shaz Bennett’s sassy yet heartfelt 2012 short queer film, Alaska Is A Drag, made a splash on the film festival circuit and is now headed for the feature film treatment with a $50,000 Kickstarter campaign. The deadline is December 12.

Philadelphia-born, Los Angeles-based star Martin L. Washington Jr. plays Leo, a young queer African American who fosters dreams of drag queen stardom under shining glitter balls while toiling away in a humdrum Alaskan fish cannery. His twin sister, Tristen, provides much-needed support — and taught Leo to fight against the local bullies — but it’s a new kid in town, Declan, who may truly help motivate some change in Leo’s life.

According to the filmmakers: “It’s a fish out of water story, like Billy Elliot in reverse or Rocky in Drag. If Hedwig and Rocky had a love child that might best describe Alaska Is A Drag.” Bennett was inspired by her experiences working in an Alaskan fish cannery for a summer, and performing with a 7-foot-tall African American drag queen, and developed the feature version’s script through Naked Angels and the AFI Directing Workshop For Women.

Meanwhile, those with all-region DVD players can see the original – which was featured at Wales’ prestigious Iris Prize festival for LGBT short films — by ordering the UK gay short compilation DVD Boys On Film 11: We Are Animals.

Lawrence Ferber

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In the Galleries: Peregrine Honig

Peregrine Honig’s latest solo exhibition, “Unicorn,” at Haw Contemporary challenges our sexual and digital identities.

read more

Christopher Harrity

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