In October 2018, news surfaced that the Trump administration was planning to strip transgender people of their official recognition, returning to a narrow definition of gender as either male or female, assigned at birth and unchangeable. In Brazil, the newly elected president Jair Bolsonaro has created an atmosphere where LGBTQIA+ communities have had to newly defend their legitimacy. And here in the UK, the mainstream media has waged a cruel war on trans people, regularly publishing transphobic headlines, and forcing trans people to “debate” their existence on television and radio.
These are just some of the reasons that our spring 2019 issue is the Infinite Identities issue, dedicated to uplifting LGBTQIA+ creatives globally. To celebrate its launch, we’ll be sharing content from the issue all week long here on the Dazed website, alongside digital-only features and video.
Launching Infinite Identities is our first spring 2019 cover star, Hunter Schafer, who tells friend Rowan Blanchard about moving to California and stepping into her new role as actress in Sam Levinson’s upcoming HBO teen drama, Euphoria. Our second cover star, model of the moment Ariel Nicholson, talks astrology and social media detoxing.
Performer and LGBTQIA+ activist Alok Vaid-Menon is in conversation with writer Jamie Windust about why fashion is political for non-binary people, while Tom Rasmussen writes about the difficulty of finding clothes as a plus-size drag queen. Meanwhile, activist Adam Eli brings together the rapturous new voices who are taking New York's LGBTQIA+ underground into the future – whether through theatre, direct action or queer club nights.
Follow along this week for more – because the future is Infinite Identities. See the whole campaign here.