Thanks for Publishing my Photos, Billboard and Billboard Pride

2018.06.10 Troye Sivan at Capital Pride w Sony A7III, Washington, DC USA 03467
2018.06.10 Troye Sivan at Capital Pride w Sony A7III, Washington, DC USA 03467 (View on Flickr.com)

Thanks for publishing my photos of @TroyeSivan, @Billboard and @BillboardPride at this year’s Capital Pride Concert (@CapitalPrideDC), in Washington, DC USA (of course).

2018.06.10 Troye Sivan at Capital Pride w Sony A7III, Washington, DC USA 03477
2018.06.10 Troye Sivan at Capital Pride w Sony A7III, Washington, DC USA 03477 (View on Flickr.com)

Besides the fantastic performance, what I remember is Sivan’s recounting of his own personal experience coming out to his family, which is recounted here:

Sivan’s parents — Jewish South Africans who moved to Perth, Australia, when he was 2 in order to avoid rising crime in Johannesburg — sent him to a Modern Orthodox day school, and he often sang in synagogue. (Sivan, Troye’s middle name, is the Hebrew word for the third month of the Jewish year.) When he came out to them at 15, “They leapt immediately into, ‘Are you OK? How can we equip you to deal with this?’” He soon worked up the courage to say he wanted to attend his first Pride parade.

“They were like, ‘Oh, we’re 100 percent coming,’” recalls Sivan, smiling at the memory. “Even though it was mildly embarrassing — I walked in the parade with my parents and my [two] brothers and my sister — it was cool because I realized that they weren’t just tolerant of their gay son, they were stoked and proud.” They still are — it’s obvious in the way they dote on him and call his boyfriend, Jacob, by his Hebrew name, “Yakov.”Troye Sivan On Coming Out, His Daring New Music & Why He’s ‘Not Holding Back’ | Billboard

Our city is happy that people like Sivan exist, and remind us how wonderful this Century has become.

The rest of the photos of Troye are in this blog post, and they are photos from the future.

More Photos from the Future: Troye Sivan at Capital Pride, Washington, DC USA

It was an honor to be part of the media team for Capital Pride. Of course I’d do it again in a heartbeat, since it’s not about the photos, it’s about the human spirit ✌️

Ted Eytan, MD