Portland State Magazine Spring 2015

24 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2015 Alumni KEVIN TRUONG’S STORY of morphing from Portland State economics major to globe-trotting chronicler of the gay experience reads like a cross between a coming of age novel and an artist’s manifesto. The son of a Vietnamese immigrant, Truong grew up in east Portland, a restless youth who kept his own gay identity secret for years. After finally coming out—first to his PSU senior capstone professor, then to everyone—he followed through on a lifelong dream after his 2004 graduation by joining the Peace Corps. He was stationed in Belize, a country where homosexuality is against the law. “They said, ‘You just have to go back in the closet,’” Truong recounts. He tried, but quit after two months. “I couldn’t be in a country where it is illegal to be who I am.” At one of those decisive crossroads in life, Truong moved to New York City and enrolled in a photography program at the Pratt Institute. He began shooting portraits of his friends, then expanded to the broader gay community. He created a blog, posting the photos and brief stories of his subjects. The blog took off, and so did Truong—to London, Paris and an across-America road-trip, photographing gay men and posting them. He’s up to 700 now. The photos, he says, show gay men as they are—proud, playful, loving, professional, intense or serene—and help break down societal barriers. This endeavor became The Gay Men Project, and is now the energetic 32-year-old’s life work. He raised more than $33,000 through Kickstarter and is traveling round-the-world interviewing and photographing people along the way. So far he has been to 22 countries and five of them—Kenya, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Indonesia—have laws that make homosexual activity illegal. “Photographing men who live in the townships of Cape Town, South Africa, and the first same-sex couple legally married in the history of Argentina have made this trip pretty amazing,” says Truong. He sometimes finds himself defending his work. Is it activism? Why only gay men and not the larger LGBT community? “I do care about change,” he says. “But I’m not a policymaker. I’m creating art. The world can do what it wants with it.” WR I T T E N B Y HARRY E S T EVE Portraits of gay life Kevin Truong ’04 is challenging gay stereotypes through his photography project. SPRING 2015