Head On Photo Festival and Gayby Baby partner to present a stirring photo series entitled Gaybies: We Are Not a Hypothetical for this year’s Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Festival.
The exhibition made up of nine portraits of children of LGBTQI parents launched last week on Thursday 18 February and will run through until Tuesday 8 March 2016, outside Sydney Town Hall.
With many children of LGBTQI parents regularly facing the challenge of growing up hearing their families being denigrated by media and politicians, this public art exhibition by Jez Smith with Casey Legler, aims to increase visibility of children, teens and young adults currently living with LGBTIQ parents in Australia and show how beautiful and diverse modern Australian families are.
The 2015 landmark feature length documentary Gayby Baby by Director Maya Newell helped in launching recognition of Gaybies into national discourse. Gayby Baby followed the lives of four children – Gus, Ebony, Matt and Graham – whose parents are either gay or lesbian. It was catapulted into mainstream news when a screening planned during class time at a Sydney high school resulted in an extraordinary ministerial state-wide ban on screening the documentary during school hours.
Newell, a Gayby herself, has since worked tirelessly on continuing the discussion and visibility of children who are being raised by LGTBQI parents. Now, in conjunction with Head On Photo Festival and Mardi Gras the lives of Gaybies are on display in striking focus; right in the center of Sydney city.
Gaybies: We Are Not a Hypothetical can be found at the front of Sydney Town Hall, 483 George Street, Sydney 2000 between 10am and 6pm daily until 8th March. The exhibition is free and wheelchair accessible. For more information visit HERE
Photo Credit: Jez Smith with Kelvin Harries and Georgia Waterford
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