Alex Boerner Photography Blog

Recently I had the privilege of photographing four portraits for an @indyweek story by writer Barry Yeoman. The story is about the 30-years leading up to the passing of North Carolina’s so called “bathroom bill” HB2. The portraits were of four transgender North Carolinians who shared their experiences with Barry, who expands the story to give a broad look at the political climate leading to the bill.

These two excerpts from the story are a small sample of the perspectives in this wide-ranging story.

"You're sitting next to a budget that landed on my desk this morning that we're going to vote on tomorrow," Jeff Jackson, the Democratic senator, told me in June. "No one's seen any of this. There was no public input. It's twenty-two billion dollars. This has become the norm. "That's what I like about HB 2: it's gotten people's attention," Jackson added. "What they need to understand is HB 2s happen all the time. We pass budgets without reading them. The public gets no say. We neglect major investments on a routine basis. We're gerrymandered from head to toe. I'm glad we finally have people's attention."

Sharon Westfall, the Chapel Hill programmer, told me about visiting the North Carolina Zoo with friends after HB 2 passed. Her driver's license says she's a woman, but her Michigan birth certificate lists her as male. Her face is feminine, thanks to surgery, but she is six feet tall and built (in her words) like a linebacker. When it came time to use a restroom, "I sat out there for about a half hour mulling it over: Which one is less likely to get my ass kicked? I decided to use the ladies' room, and I was sweating bullets the whole time I was in there. When I finished, I didn't even stop to wash my hands."

Read the full story here.

Pictured here are (top to bottom):

Reverend Mykal Slack

Christy Summersett

Sharon Westfall

Joaquin Carceño

Thank you to Kallyn Boerner and Ben McKeown for your help.

Climate Scientist Colin Kelley, photographed in Asheville, NC for Pacific Standard Magazine.

Kelley and his colleagues published a paper arguing that climate change contributes to human conflicts.

Summer on the Eno River.

Laura Jane Grace. photographed for INDY Week.

LJG is the leader of the band Against Me! and is an advocate for transgender rights. She chose not to cancel the Against Me! show in Durham, North Carolina in the wake of HB2, the state’s so-called “bathroom bill,” and instead used the show as a platform to speak out against it.

Ross and Jillian Mickens are the young owners of the 43-acre Open Door Farm in Cedar Grove, NC.