Bordered Lives ─ Transgender Portraits from Mexico

A richly evocative collection of photographs by internationally renowned photographer Kike Arnal, Bordered Lives seeks to push back against the transphobic caricatures that have perpetuated discrimination against the transgender community in Mexico. Despite some important advances in recognizing and protecting the rights of its transgender community, including legislation against hate crimes targeting transgender people, discrimination still persists, and the majority of the often appallingly violent attacks against the LGBT community are against transgender women.

In the highly personal profiles that make up Bordered Lives, including the first transgender couple to be married in Mexico and one of the country's most high-profile transgender entertainers, Arnal looks at seven individuals in and around Mexico City. He shows them going about their day-to-day lives: getting ready in the morning, interacting with family and friends, and devoting their lives to helping others in the transgender community.

Moving in its honesty, Bordered Lives challenges society’s preconceived notions of sexuality, gender, and beauty not only in Mexico but across the globe.

Originally from Venezuela and now based in the San Francisco Bay area, Kike Arnal has covered stories in the Americas, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. His photographs have been featured in the New York Times, Life, and Mother Jones, among other leading publications. Arnal’s photographs of Washington, D.C., have been collected in In the Shadow of Power, with an introduction by Ralph Nader. Susan Stryker (San Francisco, CA) is director of the Institute for LGBT Studies and associate professor of gender and women's studies at the University of Arizona.