Sheng celebrates a decade of photographs with commemorative photo book; "Fearless" images to be featured in Campus Pride's forthcoming report on the experiences of LGBTQ college athletes

Jeff Sheng started photographing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer high school and college athletes as part of his "Fearless" project in 2003 in an effort to increase the visibility of “out” individuals in athletics. Since then, he has done over fifty solo exhibitions and artist talks at high schools and colleges across the United States, as well as exhibited his work at ESPN, Nike, the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. His next big plan is to publish the Fearless series in a large photography book in commemoration of the ten-year anniversary of the project.

As a former closeted athlete, Fearless is a particularly personal project for Sheng. On the fundraising website for his photo book project, he explains, “Even though I am by training an artist and photographer, this project is highly personal for me -- as I was a former closeted athlete in high school and could not be "out" and play collegiate sports at the same time. As such, I titled the project "Fearless" as it was a reminder to myself and to others the true meaning behind the bravery of what these young people are able to do: be themselves in the face of homophobia in competitive sports -- something rarely ever seen at the professional level.”

Campus Pride echoes this message of bravery and urges colleges and universities to work toward making their athletics departments more LGBTQ-friendly. The Campus Pride “Out to Play Project” is a new resource created to challenge homophobia and transphobia in college sports and recently released the “Out to Play List” in partnership with Compete Magazine. The list highlights the Top 10 “Best of the Best” LGBT-friendly athletics programs at colleges and universities across the program.

This fall, Campus Pride and Out to Play will release the most comprehensive national research report to date sharing the experiences of nearly 500 self-identified LGBT athletes and providing resources for further progress on LGBT issues in college athletics. We hope that this groundbreaking research will continue to raise the visibility of LGBTQ athletes, and we are excited to feature images from Sheng’s Fearless project in the report. Check the Campus Pride website in the coming weeks for more information about the report and an upcoming Campus Pride webinar featuring the new research findings on October 30.