NMH Hosts "Authentic Selves" Photo Exhibit

If you take a walk through the Office of Multicultural Affairs in the Blake Student Center this month, you’ll notice the walls adorned with an array of smiling faces and happy families. The gallery of photos is part of a groundbreaking exhibit meant to transcend stereotypes and offer a human view into the lives of the often misunderstood and marginalized transgender community. “Authentic Selves,” on display through the end of February, highlights the experiences of transgender and nonbinary people from across generations and cultures.

The exhibit, part of an ongoing photojournalism series by Family Diversity Projects, combines photography and first-person narratives to show the diversity of the transgender community. By highlighting individual stories of transgender people and their families, the exhibit curators hope to “challenge damaging myths and stereotypes about trans and nonbinary people and to educate others,” according to Family Diversity Projects’ website.

“Authentic Selves” is the latest of several Family Diversity Projects exhibits NMH has hosted, said James Greenwood, the dean of equity and social justice at the school. Past exhibits centered around disability, mental health, immigrant experiences, and other marginalized communities.

“The goal is to demystify and normalize images of what family looks like in the various ways that could be manifest and bring representation to different types of families that not everyone may see all the time, as well as a sense of connection,” Greenwood said.

Organized with help from the NMH Gender Sexuality Alliance, the exhibit features 19 transgender individuals from all walks of life, ranging from a law enforcement officer to a clergywoman. Their individual narratives are coupled with accounts from family members describing their experiences around their loved one’s journey, as well as the ways in which families support and learn about gender identity.

Greenwood hopes that the stories of perseverance presented in the exhibit will resonate with students going through their own journey of gender identity. For those who may not have had much exposure to trans communities in their personal life, “Authentic Selves” puts a human face to these terms at a time when the transgender community is facing political and cultural scapegoating.

“Representation matters,” Greenwood said, “and being able to see your life mirrored and reflected back to you is affirming for our students who may be in different places of their journey and thinking about this. There's no ‘less legitimate’ way of loving and living life: You counter the prevailing narrative with education, with facts, with awareness and empathy.”

Equally important is the way those stories are presented and contextualized, said Lanie ’25, a member of the GSA.

“It's very important to have an awareness that trans lives have existed from basically the beginning of time,” Lanie said. “There are trans people who have existed and thrived, not just horror stories of trans lives that have ended or have gone through horrific experiences. These are people that have persevered and have had that end of the rainbow, ‘happy ever after.’”

In addition to organizing public displays like this, the GSA hosts regular meetings for the campus community to discuss issues of gender and sexual identity. Lanie hopes that students utilize the GSA as a safe place to share and things that they can take with them into the world.

“Whatever happens in GSA stays in GSA. Don't be worried about people assuming things about you,” she said. “You don't have to be part of the LGBTQ+ community to show up; you can be an ally or just someone who wants to know more.”

Being a part of a campus community that values learning and diversity in its student body has helped the GSA work towards its mission, Lanie added. 

“Giving the space for people in the community to have an exhibit like this, to come and talk, explain, or just represent – that's what's important. It's not just about talking; it's being able to show that we’re doing the work.”

“What we're talking about at the end of the day is another human experience,” said Greenwood. “The more that people can build empathy with that and not continue to fall into an ‘othering’ or an ‘us versus them’ will only help us bridge these divides that we're seeing in society right now.”

Photos by Aurora '26 and Max Hunt.