Wendi Cooper
I'm a transgender woman from the city of New Orleans. In 1999, I was charged with a crime that is very discriminatory against LGBT people in Louisiana… called the crime against nature statute… New Orleans Police Department had transgender women on the list of extinction, and they was utilizing this law to get rid of trans women and the LGBTQ people itself.
a Powerful Force
I was excited to work with Wendi on this project. I had met her briefly making photographs for Operation Restoration where she is Programs Coordinator.
I listened to Wendi’s interview and then spoke with her in person about making the artwork. She spoke about being a slave to the State of Louisiana because of the Crimes Against Nature law and how she would like to use the metaphor of slavery in America. She spoke specifically of shackles and on several occasions, spoke about art that is raw, making an impact, work that represents horrific events.
I also wanted to show Wendi as the powerful force she is. During the photo shoot, she talked about being at a place in her life and at an age where she is ready to fight.
I am looking forward to continuing to be engaged with Wendi by providing photographs of her events as she continues her work. She was a key figure in lawsuit that removed 700 women from the sex offender registry and now, she is tackling getting the Crime Against Nature by Solicitation laws completely repealed.
Wendi, 2018, lightjet prints
A Note On CANS
Over the last decade Wendi Cooper has tirelessly advocated for the LGBTQ+ community. As a community organizer for the NO Justice Project in New Orleans, she provided key testimony in a federal lawsuit that successfully challenged Louisiana’s Crime Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS, RS 14:89[FJ1] .2) law, securing the removal of more than 700 women from the sex offender registry in 2013. More recently in the role of a program coordinator at Operation Restoration she has also initiated the CANS Can’t Stand campaign which aims to liberate those still affected by the law. In her “Per(Sister)” interview with photographer Tammy Mercure, Wendi speaks boldly from personal experience about the intersections between criminal justice and American slavery, particularly as it relates to Louisiana transgender women of color.
For more information about the Crime Against Nature statute in Louisiana visit the Center for Constitutional Rights ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/crimes-against-nature-solicitation-cans-litigation#
Statement by Tammy Mercure, on her artistic response to Wendi Cooper’s experience:
I was excited to work with Wendi on this project. I had met her briefly making photographs for Operation Restoration where she is Programs Coordinator.
I listened to Wendi’s interview and then spoke with her in person about making the artwork. She spoke about being a slave to the State of Louisiana because of the Crimes Against Nature statutes and how she would like to use the metaphor of slavery in America. She spoke specifically of shackles and on several occasions, spoke about art that is raw, making an impact, work that represents horrific events.
I also wanted to show Wendi as the powerful force she is. During the photo shoot, she talked about being at a place in her life and at an age where she is ready to fight.
I am looking forward to continuing to be engaged with Wendi by providing photographs of her events as she continues her work. She was a key figure in lawsuit that removed 700 women from the sex offender registry and now, she is tackling getting the Crime Against Nature by Solicitation law completely repealed.
Footnotes
*The Crime Against Nature statute outlaws “unnatural carnal copulation” which has been defined by Louisiana courts as anal and oral sex. While it is no longer constitutional for Louisiana to criminalize consensual oral and anal sex between adults, the state, under CANS, may still criminalize the solicitation and performance of oral and anal sex for money.
Until recently, a CANS conviction carried harsher penalties than a prostitution conviction. The penalties have now been equalized, but because CANS used to be a felony, many people still have prior CANS convictions on their criminal records.”