Ron Amato’s Gay in Trumpland Series on View in Provincetown Gallery

Gay in Trumpland, a photo series by Ron Amato, Photography, will be on view at CUSP Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 5–16. The work is a reaction to the current administration’s policies to the gay community.

From Amato’s artist statement:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Beginning with the selection of a running mate who is unabashedly anti-gay, to a series of presidential nominations of people with histories of anti-gay agendas, the current president and administration of the United States has engaged in a war against the LGBTQ community. After years of the our community making steady gains in employment, housing and education rights, as well as legal recognition of same-sex relationships, this administration is continually dismantling those gains. The obliteration of policies and programs designed to protect the rights of LGBTQ people is systemic and widespread. Many in the administration, and many of the current president’s supporters, would prefer we just go away, hide or deny our very identity. This photo series is a visual expression of our community getting pushed back, denied basic protections under the law and being expected to forego the basic human rights of loving and community building.

In January of 2017, I set out to make a political statement because of the attitudes of some in the administration with regard to LGBTQ protections. I make work around the male figure, so it seemed natural for me to use that genre to express my point of view. I also wanted to express that what makes us gay is our sexual attraction to our own gender. To deny sexuality as an important influence in how we build our lives is to deny who we are as living, thriving human beings. The men in these photographs are depicted as having an impediment to that fulfillment, denying them the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

A reception will be held at the gallery, located at 115 Bradford St. in Provincetown, on July 10 at 6 pm.

For more information, contact Ron Amato, (212) 217-5502.

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