Butch-Femme For a New Millennium

Photographer Wendi Kali has launched the Butch/Femme Photo Project in an effort to document butch and femme identities as they exist in today's modern context.

BY Sunnivie Brydum

February 11 2013 5:00 AM ET

Belinda "Boom Boom" Carroll
Slutty
36 years old
Portland, Ore.

"I came out in 1993, and I met a butch and ID'd as femme, but then went butch for a few years. After I started hanging out with queens, I realized that I love makeup and hair. I've realized recently that although femme in my dress, I'm a bit butch on the inside. It's an evolving identity. Femme does not equal precious and wilting. We are tough too."