It just seems like it was a deliberate jab at the community.” Īs another patron noted, “It felt so very Stonewall, but without the standing up for ourselves.” “Fort Worth’s police chief, Jeffrey W. They were singling out specific people, the men who seemed more effeminate. Five patrons were arrested for public intoxication and two were sent to the emergency room, one with a torn rotator cuff and other with life-threatening brain injuries. Approximately 20 patrons were detained in plastic handcuffs while six were arrested. On June 28 th, 40 years to the day after the Stonewall raids, Fort Worth police and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC) inspectors entered the newly-opened Rainbow Lounge without a warrant. Yet while contemporary depictions of the 1969 Police raids on the Stonewall Inn are often as an event of the distant past, as recently as 2009 saw mass raids on gay bars in the United States. For most of the 20th century, going to gay bars meant that “you may be placing yourself in a position that you’re not just going to a bar but you’re going to jail that night.” This police repression played a key role in the radicalization of middle-class gays and lesbians in the latter half of the 20 th century. This is noteworthy because until recently police were often agents of violence at gay clubs. With a photo-book in the works, check out the rest of his trip through his blog, perhaps best enjoyed in silence.Police actions in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre at Orlando’s Pulse were heroic. Hendrick's has since moved to New York City. Jackie, photographed in her home's fenced in yard lives in Louisville, Kentucky but frequently visits New Orleans. She is in a field of flowers that can be seen to represent the openness that she is allowed within this community.
In part, Spree and Jackie are more free to express themselves because both of them live in areas where the population is not necessarily “scared of things they don’t understand.” Spree, from Tennessee, lives in an intentional community – an alternative lifestyle society. This evokes a feeling that while the LGTBQ community might be a suppressed minority throughout the South, a sense of contentment and acceptance is beginning to take over. Their portraits set in the subject’s residencies, give a sense of happy isolation through the sereneness of their surroundings and the comfortability of their confinements. Hendricks met them in Kentucky and Tennessee, respectively, early in his trip. Shirtless, hair pushed back, make-up half applied Justin’s bare, curved back is balanced by a long, brown, perfectly styled wig hanging opposite him - showing the duality of Justin’s two lifestyles, of man and woman.Īnother photo from the project that stands out is of two gender queer adults, Spree and Jackie. An off-camera light source spotlights him from the front, highlighting the action. The photo depicts Justin getting dressed in drag for a night out at a local gay bar. His resemblance to diCorcia in particular shines through in a photo of a young man named Justin from Jackson, Mississippi. Hendricks’ work is inspired by the likes of Philip-Lorca DiCorcia, Ed Panar and Melissa Catanese.
This allowed him to focus on specific people's personals experiences while working around pre-conceived notions that the South is full of homophobic rednecks. Using location based dating applications, such as Grindr, Hendricks was able to reach out to the underground community. Through his journey, he found that attitudes in the South have been slow to change, but are heading in a positive direction.
After returning home and completing a BFA in photography, he decided to venture back below the Mason-Dixon Line to photograph the LGBTQ south. During his trip, he noticed that life slowed down and distinctly changed just below the border of his home state. Back in 2009, Hendricks spent time in Tennessee doing humanitarian work.