The Story

Basil Soper is a transgender writer, activist, and southerner who is longing to see less representations of trans life depicted by cisgender writers, artists, and photographers. He knows there are many identities and facets to the trans community which are not being represented or if they are it is not in a gentle and loving light.  Predominantly, he struggles with the idea that being trans is inherently always painful. Johanna, is a musician and artist who identifies on the gender spectrum. Being the partner of a trans person, experiencing many people’s stigmas and misconceptions about trans folks and her need to connect humans pushes her to be apart of this project. Especially given the recent spotlight that has been placed on transgender issues Jo wants to help personalize unrepresented trans individuals to the non-trans population in a diverse and approachable light. Basil and Jo want to re-write the narrative around trans lives that the media has given to the general public by capturing authentic trans lives throughout the United States.

The two created a project that would change this storyline and the lack of representation. Together, they founded Transilient. Transilient is a photo and interview based project, similar to HONY,  that would document transgender people in their day-to-day lived realities while only using their voices.