Sasha Fleishmann was set on fire last November for wearing a skirt and a men’s shirt. This photograph was taken shortly after Sasha was discharged from the hospital.
Photographer Chloe Aftel has a series titled ‘Agender’ in which she captures thought-provoking portraits of youths who identify themselves as neither male nor female.
People who identify as agender prefer the term “they” instead of the usual gender pronouns “he” or “she”.
Aftel was commissioned by San Francisco Magazine to shoot the portraits after a horrific attack on Maybeck High School senior Sasha Fleishman on 23 November last year.
She was set on fire while sleeping on a public bus on the way home from school, suffering second and third degree burns on her legs which required her to be hospitalized for a month.
Research has shown that agender individuals within the LGBT community suffer from heavy discrimination and violence for refusing to conform to traditional notions of gender.
Most of the photographs were taken in the subjects’ homes or places of personal significance to them.
In the privacy of their surroundings, they were able to let their guard down and speak their minds about gender without fear of prejudice.
“I think a lot of people like to see gender as this scale of blue and pink. I never really identified with either side of that, or even in between blue and pink. It’s so much more complicated–my identity varies so much on any given day. Sometimes I tell people I’m gold or something,” said Emma, a fellow high school student.
Scroll down to view some of the photographs from the shoot, and read the article here.
Edie in their boyfriend’s parent home in Berkeley
Micah on the street around their home
Emma in their apartment in San Francisco. They plan to possibly change their name after graduating high school.
Sarah, one of Sasha’s closest friends, in their room in their parents house
Mark in their San Francisco apartment. They wear both “male and female” clothing.
Marilyn in their bathroom in their parents home
Rain, who models professionally as a man, in their apartment in Berkeley
[via Feature Shoot, images via Chloe Aftel]