Proud of my identity – The Wild Rainbows’ Photosymbols photoshoot

The Wild Rainbows are a group of people with learning disabilities who are part of our Gig Buddies project and advise on our work through their experiences as part of the LGBTQ+ community. They are always looking for ways to celebrate who they are and be proud of their identity as people with learning disabilities who are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

As a charity, we’ve used the Photosymbols library for years to try and make our communications more accessible. A few years ago, The Wild Rainbows were producing something and wanted to have various different photos depicting people who were clearly from the LGBTQ+ community.

However, they didn’t feel there was enough variety of photos in the library to talk about LGBTQ+ issues. So we emailed the lovely folk at Photosymbols. We suggested they could have a more comprehensive selection of pictures around this. They got back in touch and suggested doing a photo shoot with the group. Then Covid and everything got in the way, but we’re happy to say we’ve finally managed to meet up with them.

The theme of the shoot was ‘proud of my identity’ and there are some future shoots planned on the themes of ‘relationships’ and ‘coming out’.

The photos of the day looked like they had a wild time, and we can’t wait to see the final photos in the library.

The shoot came just a few days after The Wild Rainbows had led us in the Brighton Pride Parade and here are a few quotes from the group:

“I love being a lesbian, I’m so proud of myself for being in the Pride march”

“I’m proud of being me and I was so happy showing everyone who I am at pride. Not many get what being bisexual means and I’m proud to show that.”

“I don’t care what people think of me. I wear what I want I don’t care if it’s men’s clothes or women’s clothes, I’m just me.”

“My favourite part of pride was being in the march with everyone else. I’ve never done anything like that before and I’ve only just told my family I’m trans so it was amazing to be in pride.”

“It was the best day ever. I loved being out and proud and just being myself.”

It was a great day and so lovely for both our organisations to be able to help each other out this way. We’re sure many other organisations and people with learning disabilities will also benefit from the final photos.

The folk from Photosymbols said there was a great energy and clear sense of community in The Wild Rainbows group and added:

“they’re not exactly shy wallflower types are they?!”

Well, they’re not called The Wild Rainbows for nothing!