Sephora

This post came from the "Gay Star Business" site:

"Beauty retail giant Sephora will offer specialized makeup classes to trans and non-binary people.

Called ‘Bold Beauty for the Transgender Community’, the classes begin next month as part of Sephora’s Classes for Confidence program. The program’s aim is ‘to help inspire fearlessness in those facing major life transitions’.

Sephora’s official Beauty Advisors with specialized knowledge about the trans community will run the classes. Trans employees at Sephora helped created the workshops’ content.

One of the people teaching the class is Dominique Anderson, a color consultant at Sephora in New York City.  Anderson said they want to help people find confidence.

‘There was a time that I felt as a trans person I had no idea where I fit into beauty,’ Anderson told Them.

‘It was when I began shopping at Sephora that I knew it was a place where I was free to be myself. Sephora welcomed me with open arms and it’s why I work at this company.

‘During these classes, I hope to teach clients tricks that I use myself to soften up features and achieve certain looks.

‘I want to instill confidence in my clients so that when they walk out of Sephora, they feel comfortable letting the world know who they are.’

The classes will run for 90 minutes and will create unique skin care plans and product recommendations for each person. During the classes, advisors will teach people make-up application and foundation matching.

People of all gender expressions, friends, families, and allies are welcome to attend.

Free make-up workshops.

‘We stand with all members of the LGBTQA community and are committed to providing these individuals with the tools they want to feel confident and beautiful every single day,’ Corrie Conrad, the Head of Social Impact and Sustainability for Sephora told Hello Giggles.

‘At Sephora, we believe beauty is yours to define, and ours to celebrate. We are honored to be a beacon of support and part of each beauty journey through our new class offering.’

The free classes will run at certain stores across the United States."

Andrea Marra

Joining a record number of transgender candidates this year is New York's Andrea Marra according to the Gay Star News:

Andrea Marra, an activist and transgender New Yorker, has announced  her candidacy for the New York State Senate.

She’s running for District 13, representing the borough Queens and neighborhoods like Astoria and Jackson Heights. Per the press release GSN obtained, 60% of residents identify as immigrants and there’s also a vibrant LGBTQ community.

In the race, she’s challenging Democrat incumbent José Peralta. He’s a member of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), a group of Democrats who support Republican leadership in the Senate.

Marra describes Peralta as a ‘turncoat’.

‘We need new, honest leadership to protect and expand affordable housing; modernize the broken MTA; deliver the funding our schools need and deserve; and invest in New York’s overburdened public hospitals, including Elmhurst Hospital,’ she stated.

There is more to this story, to follow it, go here.

What IS Possible

Recently I found these two stories of hope from within the transgender world-from very different ends of the age spectrum and the world.  The first comes from the Advocate.com and Canada:For Gabrielle Diana Gladu, 16 is particularly sweet. Two years after a suicide attempt, she is thriving — a transgender teen who beat the odds.

Tall, blond, sharp-witted, and stylish, she lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her predominantly Catholic family, who immigrated a generation ago from Poland and France. Her family is not fabulously wealthy, but they work hard and organize their resources well to support her. 

But Gladu is all too aware that increasing transgender visibility and fresh legal protections seem to go hand-in-hand with continuing discrimination in almost every sphere of trans people’s lives — be it travel, education, health care, or employment.

The second comes from Australia and Gay Star News: One of the most prominent transgender Australians has been named as Queensland’s Australian of the Year and as a result is eligible to go on to be named Australian of the Year for 2016.

Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Group Captain Catherine McGregor is being honored for her work as a diversity champion three years after she transitioned to being a woman and went public as the highest ranking military officer in the world who is transgender.

Follow the links for more!

Best of the Best?

From Gay Star News


A 22-year-old Venezuelan on Saturday night was crowned Miss International Queen in Thailand at the world's biggest beauty pageant for transvestites and transgender women.

Isabella Santiago beat 21 other contestants from 18 countries to win the title and 440,000 baht (US$12,500) in prize money in the resort town of Pattaya.

The winner can also opt for a free cosmetic procedure, including gender reassignment surgery. Miss Thailand Nitsa Katrahong was named first runner-up and received 150,000 baht (US$4,575) and second runner-up Piyada Inthavong from Laos took home 95,000 baht (US$2,900).

Boring?

I was going through my transgender relevant emails and came across a surprising and confusing story about the clothing chain New Look:
Recently,  A young trans woman was left upset and puzzled after being told she couldn't use the changing rooms at international fashion chain store, New Look. According to Gay Star News.
A confusing story because at least in my section of the world most women's clothing stores welcome cross dressers or transgender shoppers with welcome arms. My theory is in retail business today we all are green under the sun...as in money.

But, seemingly not so much with "New Look":

"M (whose name has been withheld at her request) was visiting the chain’s branch in Brixton, south London, England where she spent half an hour browsing, picking up clothes before heading to the changing room. There, she says, her way was barred by a staff member who challenged her explicitly, stating: ‘Oh, you are a man.’ M attempted to explain she was transgender and just wanted to try on clothes like anyone else. However, the response was the same: ‘This is a women’s changing room, we don’t have any changing rooms for men."

I am not here to slam the "New Look" chain. The company tried to "spin" the story by calling the incident a mistake caused by poorly written memo. More than likely a better written memo has already been issued. If not shame on them. If they carried clothes in my size, I can certainly take my business to their competitors. The same as I do with a certain well known chicken food chain.

More interesting to me was "M"s boring comment:

‘All trans people want to be is boring. ‘All I have ever wanted was to wake up one day and be a cis gendered girl. And I guess the reason I was so taken aback by the incident was because in my head, at that point, I was the girl. Not 100%, but I was pretty damned close. ‘But [New Look’s] official policy is that I am someone who their store managers have to make special arrangements for because, in their eyes, I am not a woman and will never, ever be a woman. And I will never be boring. I will always stand out. And I will always make other customers feel uncomfortable in using a closed changing room whilst I use a separate closed changing room several feet away. ‘Still, I cannot get over the thought of, what if this happened to someone who was very early in their transition? Who has only just got out of the closet hell? This sort of thing could set someone back months in their transition.’

So true! I'm fairly certain boring does not describe me as a person at all. Even if you leave the transgender part of my personality out.
Plus when you do venture out of the closet the last thing you need is some narrow minded bigoted clerk setting you back with a dressing room ban.
Everytime a "M" steps up, it helps us all!

The Silent Enemy

Speaking primarily for me, I have been critical of the LGBT movement and the silent "T".
Truthfully, the farther I have transitioned into society the more silent I become. Not necessarily by design- I started to blend better into the world. All of a sudden it wasn't "hey isn't that a..?" to androgyny.
None of that means I would be less politically active in the transgender movement if I knew how to how to help more.
Before you think that is an excuse, here is what I have tried and what I plan to do. I have contacted my local LGBT center in Dayton and have received absolutely NO feedback-don't care. In the future, I going to put together a proposal to do a presentation at the state wide trans convention this spring.
I sometimes get the idea some think I'm just a know it all. Perhaps I am in the areas of late life transition, building a new friend network and even dealing with the Veterans Administration. I certainly don't ever think I can come close to knowing it all but I have gone there.
So, that's why I think the "T" is silent. Here is a much better in depth look from Ashlee Kelly in the UK.


In true dyslexic manner, here's the end of her article in GayStarNews:


Trans people are a minority within a minority. Our representation within wider society is so small that even the most basic transition stories can attract national attention. So it's important we work on our visibility. If even LGB people can't see us, how can we complain about being underrepresented? For more go here.