James Phillips
Born in Barnet, James studied fine art at St Martins college, is a painter and illustrator and runs INKLUDER, Barnet’s first LGBTQIA+ CIC, with his husband, also in Barnet.
What does your identity mean to you?
My queer identity was not nurtured or encouraged growing up, being from an Irish catholic family in a Thatcherite Britain all the odds were against me. However my memories and pictures (clearly) show that there was never going to be a closet that would contain my queerness… I knew I was different from the first time I can remember and I loved it. Although a very shy person I have never felt any desire to “fit in” or be anything other than my visibly queer authentic self. This fact has unsurprisingly garnered the wrong attention at times, which has only made me more militant in my efforts to normalise queerness. Ultimately I see identity as the following: BEING MYSELF UNAPOLOGETICALLY
