Last night, I received my copies of Feminist Utopia Project*, the book anthology where a short essay and number of Queer in Public photos appear, and decided I wanted this to be QUIP's last hoorah. I thought of the past two+ years, the hundreds of people photographed, the many acts of "personal is political" resistance in hands held, kisses in parks, subways, cemeteries, canals, bodegas, over dinner. I thought about all the people harassed, harmed and killed, the history we emerge from and the present we help shape. The fact that people in over half of the countries in the world at looked at QUIP's website - Qatar! China! I thought about all that's happened since in the fight for equality, and all that must be fought for. In seeing my name alongside 50+ brilliant contributors, I felt the power of simply doing something. Of Alexandra and Rachel's decision to create this anthology and then bring it to fruition. It was years of work and also that simple. I thought of my own young anger and frustration that led to QUIP's creation-- that QUIP was born out of hurt, of hate, and yet, most importantly, born out of my decision to choose Love. To live in the ideology, the utopia, of a better world. So to the three men in 2011 who whispered sexually explicit homophobic slurs in my ear, who shouted homophobic slurs loudly across Union Square, who stood closely behind me as I refilled my metro card, angrily ranting: this is for you. To Mollie and and Mary, the couple, both shot in their heads on a summer night in Texas, 2012. To Marc Carson, shot dead in the West Village in 2012. To Keyshia, Jasmine, Tamara, Shade, Amber, and the number of other trans women of color killed this year alone. The better world needs continuous creating, I am thankful to my peers who are doing the work and I'm proud QUIP has been a part of that creation. A simple idea built on the foundation that visibility begets change. And seeing that visibility in a published book feels like a really fantastic culmination of the idea. Thank you to every single person who gave/gives a damn about this project. It's been the best run. And lastly, thank you to Phoebe, for it was in loving you fiercely that I was driven to create QUIP in the first place. *Don't miss this: http://www.amazon.com/The-Feminist-Utopia-Project-Fifty-Seven/dp/1558619003
