Liz Cousins had no choice but to start from scratch.
Over the span of a few years, she divorced her husband, came to terms with her identity as a gay woman and in 2022 closed her Photos by Liz studio. She has mostly put down the camera since, turning to her interests in revitalizing Route 66 and reselling vintage under her Retrospective brand.
Much of her time, too, has been spent discovering LGBTQ+ spaces across Tulsa and finding “new family.”
“I’ve had to rebuild a whole new community within this city, because a lot of my straight community did not stay behind me,” Cousins said.
Those experiences are the inspiration behind “Queer Tulsa,” Cousins’ photo exhibition opening Sept. 4 at the Allie Jensen Memorial Art Gallery inside downtown’s Dennis R. Neill Equality Center, 621 E. 4th St. The portrait series depicts 20 Tulsans alongside interviews about their contributions to the city and the challenges they face amid a surge in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric across the country.
Some faces will be familiar to those who frequent LGBTQ+-friendly spots around the city. Val Binkley, manager of lesbian bar Yellow Brick Road, and Michelle Simmons, executive director of nonprofit Queer Lit Collective, are among the exhibition’s subjects. It also includes creatives like Tulsa Guitar Co. partner and musician Jess DiPesa. As Cousins puts it, all are people who “keep Tulsa running.”
“It’s kind of a love letter to them, but also me doing what I can to stand up for them,” she said, adding the show reflects her personal connections and not all of queer Tulsa. “Some of them are now like my chosen family. A couple of them call me Aunt Liz now.”
Seeing the struggles of trans people in her life was a big motivator to pick up the camera again and apply to do an exhibition at Oklahomans for Equality. Friends have stopped eating at certain restaurants and using public restrooms for fear they will be physically or verbally attacked.
Many are “truly afraid they will die,” Cousins said, leading at least a dozen people she knows to move away from Tulsa.
“And the city is less colorful,” she said. “Bands have broken up. Artists have disappeared and taken their talents to other cities. Our art scene, a piece of it has dissolved.”
Cousins’ goal is to put human faces on who’s contributing to Tulsa and what’s lost when they leave. Every shoot has reflected the subject’s personality, from very formal portrait styles to people posing with fake blood on their heads or dressed in full drag. Some involved adventures to locations with deep personal meaning, including a climb down into a ravine at sunset.
She’s keeping the final product under wraps until the Friday opening, which runs from 6 to 8 p.m. Cousins said she’s proud of the portraits — her first personal show since 2018.
“It’s reminding me what I’m capable of, in a way that I had kind of let go,” the Claremore native said.
The exhibition will be on display through Oct. 2, when another artist will take over the space for Tulsa Pride.
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