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Representing people of all identities responsibly is a core value for VICE. Over the years, as we have published stories focusing on and written by transgender and non-binary people, we have consistently found ourselves limited by the scarcity of available stock imagery that portrays their lives in an authentic way. So, in 2019, VICE’s former identity-focused website Broadly lead an initiative to create some.

The result, the Gender Spectrum Collection, is a stock photo library featuring images of trans and non-binary models that go beyond the clichés of putting on makeup and holding trans flags. This collection aims to help media outlets better represent members of these communities as people not necessarily defined by their gender identities—people with careers, relationships, talents, passions, and home lives.

Stock photos that accompany articles do more than illustrate subject matter. They have the power to shape perceptions of entire communities. When used critically, they can chip away at harmful stereotypes, pushing more accurate perceptions and understandings to the fore. This is why, over the last several years, initiatives have emerged to increase diversity in stock photos across race, gender, body size, ability and more.

Limiting visual representations of trans and non-binary people in media also limits the range of stories in which we imagine those subjects. With this collection, we hope to encourage richer representations of trans and non-binary personhood within society’s most important mode of public communication, visually and editorially.  

The Gender Spectrum Collection is a step toward improved representation of one of the world’s most diverse and historically most misrepresented communities, but one photo collection for one outlet is not enough. These images have been made available to other media organizations through a Creative Commons license. We encourage media outlets to use them widely and responsibly, and to commission their own nuanced depictions of trans and non-binary people whenever possible.

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