NOH8 in Arizona
Hundreds pose for photo campaign promoting equality
By Glenn Gullickson
Photos by Cinthia Schmidt

The NOH8 Campaign may have started as a protest of California’s Proposition 8, but it had an Arizona flavor when the project staged a photo shoot in Scottsdale.

During a four-hour open shoot on July 12, Adam Bouska photographed 408 people wearing white shirts, a NOH8 temporary tattoo and duct tape across their mouths.

Among those posing were a couple dressed as Sheriff Joe Arpaio and an illegal immigrant. A woman posed with a placard that read “NOSB1070,” referring to Arizona’s new immigration law.

Bouska shot people with partners, props and pets, all in an effort to promote equality.

In an interview at the Scottsdale W hotel before the photo shoot, Bouska and his partner Jeff Parshley said they brought the campaign to Arizona in response to an online poll and because of the immigration law.

The men said that they like to take to campaign to “key places at key times.” While SB1070 has caused some groups to boycott Arizona, Parshley said the controversy made it a good time for NOH8 to come to the state. “If nothing else, I feel Arizona needs it more,” he said.

They’re considering a trip to Hawaii, where the governor recently vetoed legislation that would have established civil unions, and would like to do a shoot in D.C. before the election. They said they try to do two open photo shoots a month, half in California.

Bouska has shot more than 5,000 of the photos in eight states since he and Parshley started the campaign in 2008 to represent the voices silenced after California voters approved a Constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Photos are posted online and used in public service announcements to raise awareness about marriage equality. Those who pose pay $40 for the privilege and get an email notification when the photos are ready to be downloaded.

The campaign has attracted celebrities, and Brouska recently shot the leads of the musical Wicked in San Francisco, recreating the show’s poster “whisper” pose.

Bouska said the NOH8 photo of Cindy McCain, wife of Arizona Sen. John McCain, raised the project’s profile earlier this year. The men said they invited Cindy McCain and her daughter Meghan, who also has a NOH8 photo, to a meet-and-greet after the Scottsdale shoot, but they were unable to attend.

Bouska, a self-taught fashion photographer who works in Los Angeles, said the NOH8 project has improved his skills and given his work greater exposure.

Among his projects is the cover for Meghan McCain’s book, Dirty Sexy Politics, to be released in August. Parshley predicted that the cover art will be talked about.

The NOH8 project observed its first anniversary last year with a party in Hollywood, where Parshley proposed to Bouska. They said they haven’t made any marriage plans, but would like to take the step in California when it’s legal.

For more information on the NOH8 campaign, visit www.noh8campaign.com.

Stories from the NOH8 shoot

The NOH8 Campaign’s photo shoot went off like clockwork as people arrived at the W hotel, registered and got a temporary tattoo before being called in groups of 10 into a makeshift studio to have duct tape applied to their mouths before posing for Bouska’s Canon 1Ds Mark III digital camera.

While waiting, some of those participating talked about why they were interested in the project. Read their stories on the facing page.

1. Jamie Cohen and Taylor Stevens arrived at the hotel about two hours before the photo shoot began to be first in line. Cohen, of Cincinnati, said he had heard about the event just a few days earlier and jumped on a plane to visit his friend Stevens, of Deer Valley.

2. Simone Gardunio-Reynolds, of Tucson, said the Facebook campaign he started last spring to bring the NOH8 Campaign to Arizona attracted as many as 1,500 followers. On photo day, Gardunio-Reynolds and his partner, Sal Martinez, helped people apply the NOH8 temporary tattoos.

3. Susanne Stepp, of Gilbert, brought her two sons, Martin, 9, and Oliver, 6, for the photo shoot. She said the family talked about equality on the drive to Scottsdale. “They’re all about fairness,” Stepp said. Stepp’s friends Matt Bantau, of Gilbert, and Natalie Barreda, of Peoria, also made the trip.

4. Shannon Rich, of Tempe, said she had been following the campaign and “I wanted to be a part of it.” Her friend, Chris Fike, of Phoenix, agreed. “It’s very cool to be part of something bigger than us.”

5. Partners of 14 months, Frankie Ambrose and Michael Rosales, made the two-hour trip from Oro Valley to take part of the campaign. “We want to get people aware of what’s going on,” Ambrose said.

6. Shelley Curtis and Ruth Leatherman, of Scottsdale, partners for 17 years, had just learned of the campaign a couple of days before the photo shoot. “It’s part of human rights,” Leatherman said.

7. Amy Rose and Patricia Holbrook, of Glendale, said they have friends in California and have followed the campaign since the beginning. They’ve been together for a year and would eventually like to get married. “It was love at first sight 10 years ago, but she didn’t get the hint for nine years,” Holbrook said.

8. A.J. Villanueva, who recently moved from Phoenix to Los Angeles, said he would post his NOH8 photo on his Facebook page. “It’s my way of coming out.”

9. Stephanie Nakatsubo and Kit Andrade were part of a group of five students from a gay-straight alliance at the University of Advanced Technology in Tempe at the shoot. They said they would like to use their photos on fliers promoting their group.

10. Sammy Stephens, of Tempe, said he had used the NOH8 Campaign theme as part of his master’s of fine arts dissertation at ASU. His best friend, Andre Washington, of Tempe, noted that as black gay men, “we’ve run the gamut of discrimination.”