Robin Rayne, documentary photojournalist

LGBTQ collection

  • Blake Alford,73, reminisces about his truck driving career at a truck stop south of Atlanta. He worked as a long-distance truck driver for more than 30 years as Rebecca Alford before transitioning to his more authentic male gender at 56. “I was just this lesbian trucker for years. I didn’t transition until my mother passed. I didn’t want her to be embarrassed that her daughter was really her son. But I think she would have liked me as Blake. I remember her telling me she just wanted to see me happy. And I’m finally happy in my own skin now. I’m at peace,” he said. Alford has since retired, but would get back behind the wheel “in a heartbeat, if I had that opportunity,” he said.
  • Shane Summers, a gender-fluid preteen, plays in a field of large bubbles at the city’s OUT in the Park Gay Pride Festival on Tampa Bay. Instead of hosting one of the largest Gay Pride parades in the country, local organizers opted for a series of smaller events spread throughout June, considered Gay Pride Month.The scaled back celebrations were due to COVID-19 precautions, though few attending Saturday’s waterfront OUT in the Park festival used masks.
  • ERIN SWENSON,74, at Central Presbyterian Chuch in Atlanta, where she attended as a teen. She broke new ground within mainstream Christian Protestant faith groups in 1996, when the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, by a vote of 186 to 161, sustained her ordination as a Presbyterian minister. Erin had transitioned from male to female that year after 23 years of ordained service, and with the Presbytery’s vote in 1996 she became the first mainstream minister in the U.S. to make a gender transition while remaining in ordained office.
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  • Atlanta, GA, Oct. 12, 2019 -- A volunteer member of the 'Pansy Patrol' takes delight in obscuring a sign held by one of a group of street and open air preachers who yell insults and obscenities to attendees of the city's Gay Pride Parade.(AP Photo/Robin Rayne)
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  • Friends from the Atlanta transgender community tearfully embrace at a memorial service for Sophie Vasquez, 36, a Latina transgender woman who was shot dead at her apartment on May 4.Vásquez was shot multiple times, police said. Brookhaven police found five shell casings and three bullets at the scene. Police have released little information about the crime, saying they don’t have a suspect and haven’t determined a motive. But local activists accused them of downplaying the incident because of Vásquez’s gender identity.{quote}At this time in the investigation, her murder does not appear to have any connection to being transgender,{quote} a spokesperson for Brookhaven Police said in a release. If the evidence supports additional charges related to hate-crime bias they will be levied at the appropriate time, police said.Her murder brings the national count of violent deaths for transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming individuals to 24, making 2021 the deadliest year so far in the past decade for that population, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
  • Atlanta, GA, Oct. 12, 2019 -- Religious protestors yell insults as members of Georgia's transgender and non-binary community march for transgender rights through the city's Midtown district. The march is part of Atlanta's Gay Pride Festival. (AP Photo/Robin Rayne)
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  • February 19, 2019 - Atlanta, GA - TK Hadman, 30, is examined by Dr. Scott Parry, DO, who oversees his general health and hormone replacement therapy. TK, who is transgender, was assigned female at birth but struggled with that gender until he transitioned to male six years ago. ''I'm totally at peace in my true gender,'' he said..Pictured: TK waits for nurse to take blood sample (Credit Image: © Robin Rayne/ZUMA Wire)
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  • Transgender community, family and allies rally and march in Midtown Atlanta to protest President Trump's recent tweet about transgender individuals in the military service.
  • Transgender community, family and allies rally and march in Midtown Atlanta to protest President Trump's recent tweet about transgender individuals in the military service.
  • Transgender community, family and allies rally and march in Midtown Atlanta to protest President Trump's recent tweet about transgender individuals in the military service.
  • Atlanta Gay Pride crowds showed jubilant optimism today over recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and a lawsuit challenging Georgia's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. But while half the United States might legalize same-sex marriage or make moves in that direction by 2020, Georgia won't be among them, according to Anthony Michael Kreis, a lawyer and a doctorate student in UGA’s School of Political and International Affairs. {quote}Public opinion is rapidly changing toward acceptance of gay marriage rights and more and more states are moving toward recognizing same-sex marriage,{quote} he said.Recent polls suggest more people will be in favor of gay marriage than against it in 44 states within seven years, but in six southern states, a majority of the population will still oppose gay marriage, Kreis predicted. Besides Georgia, the holdout states will be Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.{quote}The legal and political landscapes are changing quickly, and more and more people support same-sex marriage,{quote} Kreis noted. {quote}The shift is not just generational,” Kreis said. “There’s some truth to that, but part of it is actually people changing their mind.”Still, there’s not much chance of gay marriage becoming legal in Georgia in the near future, Kreis said.“In Georgia, you can be fired for being gay,” he said. “Is there room to work on that? Yes.”PICTURED: anti-gay activist shouts accusing hate-filled slurs at crowd near by
  • LGBT community in Atlanta rallies outside statehouse hoping proposed Religious Freedom Law is voted down.
  • ZIYA YEWDALL loves pink, My Little Pony toys and clothes, Barbie dolls, sparkly head bands and dresses just like untold thousands of six-year-old girls across the country. Except that Ziya was assigned male and birth and considers himself to be a boy, but maybe a girl, too. {quote}Ziya is gender-fluid,{quote} explains Faith Yewdall, Ziya's open-minded mother. Faith and Ziya's dad Eli support and affirm's their child's gender identity and expression, which might be more boyish one day and more feminine the next. {quote}Ziya is a mix of both genders, falling somewhere in the middle,{quote} Faith explains. Pictured: Ziya and little sister Ada help choose a name for one of Ziya's many dolls with help from two of Ziya's girlfriends.
  • Pride School Atlanta, the first affirming school for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender-non-confirming students and staff, launched in August after more than two years of planning. Based on the {quote}free school{quote} model, it joins a small handful of such schools in the U.S. specifically designed as safe spaces for LGBTQ youth. The school's founder, CHRISTIAN ZSILAVETZ is himself a transgender man, with decades of teaching experience. {quote}We've created a school where everybody gets to be themselves,{quote} he explained to parents and students who showed up on the first day of school. {quote}These students needed a place to learn, free from bulling or judgement. When you remove these barriers to learning, it's amazing what can happen,{quote} he said. {quote}Until every student has permission to be themselves wherever they are, and get an education where they have a full seat at the table, there will be a need for schools like Pride School,{quote} he said. Zsilavetz is particularly focused on transgender students, those who identify and live as other than their birth-assigned sex. {quote}I firmly believe in bringing transfer rights to the forefront. We're totally ready for it. Now we can take care of our trans youth especially,{quote} he told parents. The school currently has eight students and a small staff of part-time and volunteer staff. It is funded by tuition and support from the community, and hopes to raise enough funds to provide scholarships for gay, transgender and gender-flied youth who want to attend but can't afford the costs. PICTURED: Alli Ducato, a trans girl, began her gender transition a year ago. Her family relocated from the midwest to Atlanta specifically because of Pride School.
  • Pride School Atlanta, the first affirming school for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender-non-confirming students and staff, launched in August after more than two years of planning. Based on the {quote}free school{quote} model, it joins a small handful of such schools in the U.S. specifically designed as safe spaces for LGBTQ youth. The school's founder, CHRISTIAN ZSILAVETZ is himself a transgender man, with decades of teaching experience. {quote}We've created a school where everybody gets to be themselves,{quote} he explained to parents and students who showed up on the first day of school. {quote}These students needed a place to learn, free from bulling or judgement. When you remove these barriers to learning, it's amazing what can happen,{quote} he said. {quote}Until every student has permission to be themselves wherever they are, and get an education where they have a full seat at the table, there will be a need for schools like Pride School,{quote} he said. Zsilavetz is particularly focused on transgender students, those who identify and live as other than their birth-assigned sex. {quote}I firmly believe in bringing transfer rights to the forefront. We're totally ready for it. Now we can take care of our trans youth especially,{quote} he told parents. The school currently has eight students and a small staff of part-time and volunteer staff. It is funded by tuition and support from the community, and hopes to raise enough funds to provide scholarships for gay, transgender and gender-flied youth who want to attend but can't afford the costs. PICTURED: Zsilavetz speaks to students and parents on first day of school.
  • ZIYA YEWDALL loves pink, My Little Pony toys and clothes, Barbie dolls, sparkly head bands and dresses just like untold thousands of six-year-old girls across the country. Except that Ziya was assigned male and birth and considers himself to be a boy, but maybe a girl, too. {quote}Ziya is a mix of both genders, falling somewhere in the middle,{quote} his mother Faith explains.
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  • Mitch Le Luxe, a transgender teen, watches the crowd at Gay Pride festival. He moved to Atlanta from rural Arkansas. In the midst of the conservative and often bigoted South, Atlanta is considered an oasis of acceptance of the transgender community.
  • LGBT community celebrates Gay Pride in the city's midtown neighborhood, drawing thousands from across the South. Pictured: crosswalks at 10th and Piedmont Avenue are painted with Gay Pride colors for the weekend.
  • A gay couple strolls through Atlanta's Gay Pride Festival in the city's Piedmont Park. Atlanta was recently ranked by the Advocate Magazine as America's gayest city. On assignment for Zuma Press
  • Atlanta Gay Pride crowds showed jubilant optimism today over recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and a lawsuit challenging Georgia's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. But while half the United States might legalize same-sex marriage or make moves in that direction by 2020, Georgia won't be among them, according to Anthony Michael Kreis, a lawyer and a doctorate student in UGA’s School of Political and International Affairs. {quote}Public opinion is rapidly changing toward acceptance of gay marriage rights and more and more states are moving toward recognizing same-sex marriage,{quote} he said.Recent polls suggest more people will be in favor of gay marriage than against it in 44 states within seven years, but in six southern states, a majority of the population will still oppose gay marriage, Kreis predicted. Besides Georgia, the holdout states will be Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.{quote}The legal and political landscapes are changing quickly, and more and more people support same-sex marriage,{quote} Kreis noted. {quote}The shift is not just generational,” Kreis said. “There’s some truth to that, but part of it is actually people changing their mind.”Still, there’s not much chance of gay marriage becoming legal in Georgia in the near future, Kreis said.“In Georgia, you can be fired for being gay,” he said. “Is there room to work on that? Yes.”PICTURED: An equality-minded young man watches as anti-gay activists set up their banners along the parade route
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