EXQUISITAMENTE ÚNICO EXQUISITELY UNIQUE
NORKKA Mirella Medina
This work is dedicated to Oscar Wilde at Reading Gaol at 2PM for two reasons: Natalia and Mark.
We are all unique, but we still feel more comfortable when we are like everybody else. We try not to stick out of the crowd, we can even punish others for being different. It is always more comfortable to be in boxes, in closets and to put people in those closets too. This book is about people who dare to embrace the essence in themselves. People who understand and live the fact that they are exquisitely unique.
FREDDIE “I try to live my life as honestly as I can. To me that means living authentically. I live my life as I do, as an out and proud transsexual man, because it is important to live my life, expressing my truth�.
“ I keep going when things are tough by reminding myself that there is good in this world, and people can learn to accept difference if they understand it�.
Being homosexual, bisexual or transgender is illegal in about 78 countries. At least 5 countries punish it with the death penalty.
TANYA “Being honest in my life means that I live my life as myself, live as a girl despite everyone else always telling me that I’m not a girl. I do not try to hide or hide the fact that I am transgender but living my life like any other girl�.
“My supreme hope is that what I do, going outside and being me, might change the world just a little and make the journey for the next child who is born transgender a tiny bit easier�.
Denmark legalized same-sex sexual acts back in 1933
MARCEL DE SADE “I have never found it difficult to be me, it is easy. What else could I be?”.
In 1935 Sigmund Freud wrote the following letter to an american mom worried about her son: “Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too...�
KASPER “It did not feel natural to tell my parents I am homosexual even though I knew they would not have a problem with it. I am sure there will come a day when same sex couples can walk hand in hand on the street and nobody will point at them�.
Thirteen out of the nineteen countries where same sex marriage is allowed are located in Europe. Denmark was the first country in the world to recognize same-sex unions in 1989. They are called registered partnerships.
GABRIEL “..If people do not accept or endorse you, you do not need their acceptance or endorsement anyway. I would like to have a relationship one day, to have a family, children...�
30 years ago homosexuality was removed from the list of mental illnesses by the Danish Health Board. The World Health Organization (WHO) has not removed homosexuality from their publication’s disease classification system yet.
LARS “I think that those people who, we think, stick out of the crowd are there to remind us that we are unique and they, in a way, feed our society with understanding and acceptance of our differences�
“We are all unique, no matter how hard people try to get lost in the crowd�.
Thanks to all the people from the LGBT community who supported me with this photo project. You are all one of a kind. Thank you for making the difference.