gaywrites:

French photographer Olivier Ciappa has launched a photo project called “IMAGINARY COUPLES,” in which straight celebrities pose as same-sex couples in order to portray positive, recognizable images of homosexuality. 

“The celebrities that I shot are heterosexual, but it was essential to me that you would believe these imaginary couples and families they portray were real,” Ciappa told The Huffington Post. “If you couldn’t identify with their love and feel it was real, then I would have failed. And to show that love is love, no matter who [is involved], the exhibition also features real gay families, straight ones, single parents, disabled, people of different skin colors and origins, different religion, young couples, old ones… All of these pictures, imaginary or real, have the same glamorous and warm monochrome style that makes them look not only appealing but timeless.”

I’m sharing this not because I think it’s “bold and powerful,” as the Huffington Post called it, but because it really rubs me the wrong way. I’m sure this photographer and the people being photographed mean well, but uplifting straight folks pretending to be gay is not the same thing as uplifting LGBT people who don’t have to pretend. 

Why is it that using pictures of heterosexual celebrities is the only way the public will be able to identify with images of same-sex families? 

Why would this be more effective than using actual photos of actual same-sex couples, whether or not they’re famous? 

Why is it considered bold and powerful for straight people to pose as gay in the name of visibility, but it’s still too much to ask to feature LGBT people in our own stories? 

I just don’t understand. 

(via gaywrites)