In a rare appearance Saturday, celebrity photographer Adam Bouska and the NOH8  campaign set up at the Seattle Renaissance Hotel in an afternoon of photography, drinks and catching up. Symbolizing voices silenced by California’s Proposition 8 and similar legislation around the world Adam added the faces Hot Flash Inferno founder Pauline Miriam, Joyce Schiltz, Inferno graphic designer and bookkeeper, and me, to the NOH8 Campaign.

Receiving overwhelming support from around the world the campaign has appeared in various local and national news programs and publications. If you are unfamiliar with the NOH8 Campaign it is a photographic silent protest created in direct response to the passage of Proposition 8, the California proposition to amend the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage. With more than 20,000 participants since it’s inception the campaign began with portraits of everyday Californians from all walks of life and soon rose to include politicians, military personnel, newlyweds, law enforcement, artists, celebrities, and many more.

Along with the Inferno personalities was the Red, White & Proud 2011/2012 Mr. & Miss Gay Seattle Pageant winners, Alexander Mentele and DonnaTella Howe crowned Mr. Gay Seattle XXXVI and Miss Gay Seattle XLVII respectively. These young beauties are part of The Imperial Sovereign Court of Seattle & The Olympic and Rainier Empire; a non profit social/charitable organization whose purpose is to provide funds and services to other non-profits within the Gay and Lesbian Community of Seattle and King County Washington.

And of course no LGBT event is ever complete without the Sister’s rocking their veils! The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are an organization comprised of men and women dedicated to the support, education, and development of our community.

If you get a chance to have your portrait done for the NOH8 Campaign do it, join us. The opportunity to be photographed by Adam Bouska, wonderful in itself, is insignificant compared to the education, advocacy, promotion of marriage, gender and human equality that you would be supporting in this campaign.

About Patti Reeves: A displaced Hawaiian writing out of the wonderful Puget Sound Area, I am a self taught quilter with a degree in fine art & multimedia design currently working in the fashion industry. After years of this, that and the other I find myself with three boys, two dogs, and a history of car purchases that would fill a car lot. With one in every color, my shoes take me where I live everyday to the fullest, tasting, testing and trying most anything that crosses our path.