27 July 2017 — Art Exhibition Shows Life in the Home of Young Trans Woman in Freetown, Sierra Leone
On 27 July 2017, “The House of Kings and Queens” exhibition opened at the Humber Street Gallery in Hull, United Kingdom. The exhibition was made up of photographs by Lee Price, focusing on members of the LGBTQIA+ community living in the home of a young trans woman in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The exhibition marked 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales. The exhibition documents the lives of the queer community living in the house in a country where homosexuality is criminalised, and where gay and trans people bear the brunt of societal, police and legal inequality, discrimination and violence.
- Note that in many countries where English is not a first language, or where Western terminology is not embraced, people use the word ‘gay’ to include trans people.
From a BBC article about the exhibition:
A visitor to the house, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of persecution, said: “Life is tough for gay people in Sierra Leone and especially those who are transgender. We face a lot of problems here. Transgender people can be flogged in the streets and we don’t feel safe going out after dark in case we are attacked. When Ebola came to Sierra Leone, it was blamed on gay people. We suffer so much humiliation every day, but I am proud to be gay. The LGBT community faces harassment, ridicule, eviction and violence from people who believe homosexuality goes against their religious or cultural beliefs”.
Photographer, Lee Price said:
“The work, whilst a reminder of the progress still to be made with regards to international gay rights, is also a celebration of the inspiring defiance of oppression and segregation amongst the gay community of Sierra Leone.”
From an article by Attitude magazine:
It is still illegal to engage in homosexual acts in 77 countries, including in Hull’s sister city Freetown, Sierra Leone where a maximum sentence of life imprisonment can be imposed.
While the law is rarely enforced, people of the LGBT+ community face persecution of a different kind. Harassment, ridicule, eviction and violence at the hands of people who say homosexuality goes against their religious or cultural beliefs. Therefore, the vast majority of LGBT+ people choose to keep their sexuality a guarded secret from the people around them.
However, within the heart of Freetown, lives a young transgender woman who offers a warm welcome to members of the LGBT+ community in need. Her home is a sanctuary where they do not have to hide who they are and can live without oppression whilst surrounded by those who understand and accept them. They call it ‘The House of Kings and Queens’.
Lee Price was commissioned by Hull 2017 to create this unique collection of photographs, which acts as a window into the lives of the house ‘s inhabitants and explores what it means to be gay in Freetown.
The photographs convey both the cloud of secrecy that the subjects of the images live under and the sense of liberation that they feel at being able to express themselves freely, even in such a restricted environment.
Lee said: “I was delighted to be asked to document such a poignant subject matter and to mark this important anniversary year of decriminalisation.
