For many LGBTQ+ people in China, especially among older generations and in more traditional families and communities, homosexuality has long carried a strong social stigma. Expectations around marriage, family, and continuing the family line can make coming out or openly living with a partner particularly difficult..

Over five years, I travelled across mainland China and photographed more than 30 people and couples, often inside their homes—the places where they could be most themselves.

Some had supportive families. Others had experienced rejection or conversion therapy. But what stayed with me was not the difference between their stories, but their determination to build a life on their own terms.

This project became a record of love, intimacy, dignity and hope in a part of Chinese society that was often hidden from view.

The photographs were published by NPR