Minnesota University Drawing Scrutiny for Inviting Transgender Photographer Loren Cameron to Campus

The University of Minnesota-Duluth is attracting an undue amount of finger-wagging for hosting and providing a $4,000 honorarium to California-based photographer Loren Cameron so that he can present “Transgender Images,” which (graphically) chronicles his physical transformation from a woman to a man.

A report on Campus Reform — which passive-aggressively refers to Cameron as a “self-described man” — describes the photographs in “Transgender Images” as explicit (as if nudes were a shocking innovation in the art world), and, referring to an anti-racism initiative called the “Unfair Campaign” that the university sponosored in June, claims that UMD is “now infamous for funding controversial programs.” The “controversy” with Cameron’s exhibit, of course, centers around the fact that the university is public, so even the relatively meager $4,000 to cover Cameron’s travel and speaking fees is somehow subject to prudish criticism.

Cameron began documenting his transition from female to male in 1993, soon after which he also started documenting other transsexuals, most notably transmen for whom the female-to-male surgical transformation is “ongoing.” So far, UMD has not responded to calls that it explain its reasons for inviting Cameron to campus, except to say that he’s coming and that the university is paying him, which hopefully amounts to an unspoken “fuck off” to anyone apt to raise an eyebrow.

Minnesota university books photo exhibit of transgender man’s metamorphosis [Fox News]