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‘There is a true strength in expressing your best self unashamedly.’
In April, Isaac Keatinge was brutally attacked while wearing a dress. Keatinge, who identifies as queer, told BuzzFeed that he was walking toward King Street in Sydney, Australia, when some men began to yell anti-transgender slurs.
“They verbally assaulted me, comments about wearing a dress, ” Keatinge told BuzzFeed. “I responded in kind. I wasn’t afraid of going up to them to talk and try to diffuse the situation.”
But when he approached the men, he was attacked. Keatinge’s friends took him to a hospital and not long after, his face, bloodied and bruised, showed up all over the Internet.
A month later, Keatinge is taking his image back, posing with friends in a high-fashion shoot for Heaps Gay, a site by and for the queer community in Australia.
Samuel Leighton-Dore, editor of Heaps Gay and author of the article, wrote, “Our goal was to give the story a much needed positive twist, proving once and for all that not only are the gender binaries of clothing completely outdated and fucked up, but there is a true strength in expressing your best self unashamedly.”
Most of the comments in response to the article have been positive.
In one comment, Dore adds, “We have the right to be resilient and proud.”
h/t Buzzfeed
