No matter how great the graphic, if the shirt is ugly and uncomfortable, you’re not going to wear it. With my designs, I use various symbols to create stories, little snapshots of emotions and sentiments that represent the wide spectrum of the gay experience - from shame to spite, from loneliness to pride.ĭesigning gay visibility so that you can be out, confidently isn’t just about designing fire graphics. I think there’s something empowering about acknowledging a thing as it really is - in acknowledging pain, in acknowledging shame, in acknowledging the process - and in owning it frankly and simply, in humor and irony. I was craving visibility, representation, and multi-dimensionality in my pursuit to be out confidently.Īfter I set out to design subtle and nuanced visibility, I realized that a lot of my unconscious inspiration was coming from darkness and shame that defined my gay experience - darkness that I wanted to acknowledge, reclaim, take ownership over, and make light of. I created Simple Gay Apparel because the market offerings weren’t getting it. Rainbows and unicorns fail to acknowledge the existence of the long path that we drudged along before being able to finally peek our head out of the darkness and at some point, hopefully, become relatively shameless. And, as you know, our gay experience isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. You’re more than that - you’re a gay person with a gay experience.
![simple gay pride tattoo simple gay pride tattoo](https://www.tattoosforyou.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Rainbow-Tattoo-Sleeve.jpg)
![simple gay pride tattoo simple gay pride tattoo](https://www.gay.it/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/tattoo-gay-rainbow-7.jpg)
You aren’t just a rainbow, just a “gay person” who only pops into existence every June for out-of-touch brands to label and commoditize - for brands to fake care about and reductionistically appeal to - in pursuit of their main goal, the almighty dollar. Simple Gay Apparel is meant to transcend Pride as we know it. “we aren’t about rainbows and unicorns just for the sake of rainbows and unicorns”