It’s cute to sell straight people cookie-cutter notions of the queer community as a group full of happy couples in love — but we’re not always in love. Some of us are SLAGs. Some of us are too ugly to be loved. Some of us are so mentally unwell that we’re not able to hold down a relationship. Some of my exes might say I’m all three. Some of us are lonely old queers having to closet ourselves in care homes, some of us are suicidal teenagers, and some of us have nowhere to live after our families chucked us out and the Conservatives in the UK, where I live, cut housing benefits for 18-to 21-year-olds.
If picture-perfect love is the only thing you love about us, then our longest battles are ahead. Olivier Ciappa and his SPAGs (Straights Posing As Gays) might think they’re helping promote positive images of gay couples, but I’m not sure these are the kinds of images that need promoting.
— Excerpted from an article by VICE columnist Sophia Wilkinson, discussing Olivier Ciappa’s new photo series IMAGINARY COUPLES, which casts celebs, athletes, and popular personalities to show the many different forms of love
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