Keeping Community in Focus: Supporting our own

You probably know Syd London, even if you don’t know it. If you’ve been to a queer event in New York City in the past few years, you’ve seen her, or perhaps almost seen her. She’s skirted past your periphery,  lain in the shadows, towered over your heads. But she’s there, snapping the photos that will document the history of our queer community and movements.Let me tell you about Syd London. Syd is an artist. She is also a photo journalist. Syd is passionate and loving and is full of heart. She is painfully humble and selfless. She gives herself tirelessly to her community and her work. She doesn't like to ask for help. She needs to be reminded to rest, to take care of herself. If she could magically divide herself in two, both Syds would be working to exhaustion to make the lives of queer folk better.Communities gain validity through visibility. As the much of the Gay movement marches forward to increasingly rigid and narrow standards of identity and relationships, the queer community is pushed further and further into the margins. Those of us whose relationships are far from heteronormative, whose gender identities and expressions strain definition, whose culture and art and beliefs are not solely defined by the Gay movement, we are ignored. And to be ignored is to be devalued and dehumanized.We need to be recognized. We need to be valued. We need visibility. And Syd London helps to provide this. She reaches, stretches, bends and contorts snapping thousands of pictures to capture the beauty of our wonderful community. And everything Syd has contributed she has done on borrowed equipment.With her own equipment Syd will be able to not only continue what she is doing, but have the freedom and capability to shoot better, faster, more skillfully. If she has been so successful over the past few years, just IMAGINE what she will be able to do with just a little more support from all of us.Take a moment, make a donation. Trust me, she deserves it. She’s been supporting all of us for years. Visit indiegogo.com/sydlondon to donate. For more examples of Syd's stellar work, visit www.sydlondon.com.