The Gender Affirming Care Project exists to honor, protect, and uplift transgender lives through art, education, and collective action. We believe gender affirming care is not political. It is personal, medical, and lifesaving. This project uses art as a bridge, connecting communities, challenging rigid narratives about gender, and creating space for deeper understanding. By centering real stories and lived experiences, we confront misinformation with truth, replace fear with connection, and transform isolation into belonging.
This website is a living bridge that connects transgender, nonbinary, two spirit, gender nonconforming, and cisgender artists through their individual and powerful relationships with gender affirming care. Each artist brings a unique story, yet we are united by a shared belief that all genders are real, valid, and worthy of affirmation and protection.
Gender Affirming Care Saves Lives is more than a message. It is a call to stand together in defense of dignity, autonomy, and the right of every person to exist fully and safely as themselves.
“GAC was born from a passion for art and a belief in its transformative power.”
Curator
Eli Rigatuso, he/they, is a queer transmasculine Two-Spirit of the Menominee Nation. He is a writer, storyteller, filmmaker, photographer, and visual artist whose work interrogates identity, culture, colonial legacy, and healing. A proud member of the LGBTQIA2S community, Eli embraces their role as Two-Spirit, using creative expression to both honor ancestral traditions and unearth the ways colonization has shaped—and silenced—their voice.
For much of their life, Eli felt the weight of ancestral and societal expectations: internalized norms that demanded quiet, that made them doubt the value of their own voice. Colonial legacy imposed erasures—of language, of culture, of identity—that taught many Indigenous people to silence complex truth. Eli’s work confronts that silence: in written story, visual art, in film and photography, in beadwork, regalia, mixed media wood/epoxy pieces, and wearable clothing. Through creating, they learn what it means to reclaim voice, bear witness, and assert presence.
One powerful example of this reclamation is found in their post “Spirit of a Leader” on Speaking of Happy, where Eli reflects on leadership, spirit, and self-recognition. In that piece, they trace how colonial structures tried to suppress Indigenous leadership and dampen cultural strength— and how in response, they themselves learned to hide or mute parts of their identity. But through writing and visual practice, they broke through the internalized silence to draw forth stories that had been kept quiet: stories of Two-Spirit identity, stories of intergenerational trauma, and stories of reclaiming ancestral pride.
In every medium—be it through lens, brush, pen, bead, or wood and epoxy—Eli strives to cultivate connection: to their Indigenous roots, to personal truth, and to those who witness their work. Their art becomes both a mirror and a doorway: reflecting the damage colonization has caused, and opening space for healing, self-acceptance, and transformation.
Eli continues to expand their creative practice as a vehicle for broader cultural healing. Their work encourages others to see beauty in vulnerability, to hear voices long muted, to embrace the weight and richness of identity—and in doing so, to chart their own path toward joyful authenticity.
“Community and human connection are our most powerful tools in all walks of life! To reach out to someone with kindness and knowledge to help them along their journey is an incredible privilege all on its own – and to be a part of a project highlighting these journeys within the transgender community, which is near and dear to us on a personal level, was an amazing opportunity. We are both freelance artists based currently in Omaha who focus on character design and storytelling through digital illustration together – oftentimes centering around LGBT characters and stories specifically.”
– Paul Emery & Coy Charley
Chris (he/him) is a visual artist and illustrator with Cree roots from Saskatoon, SK. A member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation. Chris’ work reflects his desire to visually tell stories and draw connections to Indigenous culture. He promotes cultural education in his classroom and in all art mediums. He is a graduate from the University of Saskatchewan with a Bachelor of Education degree and continues to embrace being a lifelong learner.
He was gracious enough allow Eli to use his imagery of the 2-Spirit Indigiqueer feathers. Eli was able to get the main feather images embroidered and it became the central character on his progress pride ribbon shirt shown here
And it was used in the creation of these jeans, available for purchase, in collaboration with Tamie Nebesniak at Basement Five
You can connect with Chris in the following places:
