Nel in their kitchen after I gave them a haircut. Minneapolis, MN. 2024 Photograph by Brooklynn T. Kascel Story Summary: Focused exclusively on queer and trans people who live in the midwest - a place of distinct beauty, a place I love, but somewhere that is not welcoming to all - these pictures are a glimpse into two long-term bodies of work that have developed inside this zone of the U.S. for 10 years. Since 2017, I have photographed my queer and trans peers across the greater midwestern region in the ongoing series, Fear And Loving. By combining autobiographical documentary and conceptual imagery from my home state of Iowa, the first state in the nation to remove gender identity as a protected class from its’ civil rights act in 2025, I chronicle interpersonal exchanges fastened within the midwestern landscape during the newest anti-LGBTQIA2+ era in America. Of Body and Land is the second chapter and documents a growing health equity crisis in the state of Missouri—where trans and non-binary people are being denied gender-affirming, and life-saving, healthcare after the passage of SB49 nearly three years ago. The justification to deny access to hormones and surgery for adults and puberty blockers for youth is not based on scientific evidence, but rather beholden to political interference and rooted in gender discrimination against anyone who does not fit into the gender binary that our government hopes to mandate. I never got the sense of hopelessness in Missouri, but rather witnessed overwhelming feelings of resilience and love. It is understood and unspoken that the U.S. government's overreach and discrimination against trans, non-binary and gender diverse people in America, no matter how terrifying or exhausting, will always be overcome with support for each other; this community can never be erased.