Proud to Serve is a multimedia portrait project featuring Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) American service members who served their country in silence or were discharged under the current law, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
Just before leaving Austin, TX to come to New York City to attend The International Center of Photography, I was driving my pedicab and met a soldier, who not only told me, he was "gay", he told me what it was like to be "gay" in the military. Honestly, before meeting him, I never really thought about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or gays in the military in general. That night, I went home and looked up gays in the military. I was shocked by the statistics. There are roughly 65,000 gay service members currently serving in the armed forces. Nearly 14,000 service members have been discharged for being gay. There are more than one million gay veterans. With so many gay veterans, why had I not met any? Or maybe I had? Who are they? Why are they still hiding? Why did they join the military? What are their stories? I had so many questions.
When I started the full-time photojournalism program at ICP in September 2008, you are told that you need a "long-term" year-long project, I proposed photographing and recording the stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender veterans, in their homes. Over the last two years I visited the homes and documented the stories of these men and women. More than half of the portraits featured in Proud to Serve took place on a recent, 28-day, 10,167-mile solo road trip around the United States.
With this on-going project, I am putting a human face on the statistics of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.