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TRANSGENDER

French Vogue magazine puts transgender model on cover for first time

Vogue Paris is to become the first French magazine to feature a transgender model on its cover, according the honour to Valentina Sampaio of Brazil for its March edition.

Published: 15 February 2017 09:22 CET
French Vogue magazine puts transgender model on cover for first time
Photo: Vogue Paris
Calling Sampaio the “glam standard-bearer of a cause that is on the march”, the French edition of Vogue describes the 22-year-old as a “femme fatale” who happened to be born a boy.
   
“Beyond her evident physical qualities and her sparkling personality, (Sampaio) embodies… a long and painful fight against being perceived as a 'gender exile',” Emmanuelle Alt, the magazine's editor-in-chief, writes in her editor's letter.
   
A sultry Sampaio, bathed in dark purple and blue light, appears over the words “Transgender Beauty”, with a subtitle reading “How they are shaking up the world,” on the cover to appear on newsstands February 23.
 
 

A post shared by Valentina Sampaio (@valentts) on Sep 8, 2016 at 8:25am PDT

   
Transgender people are increasingly emerging from the shadows.
   
Caitlyn Jenner, a former male US decathlon star, made history by coming out with the June 2015 cover of Vanity Fair, prompting Glamour US magazine to name her woman of the year.
   
“Vogue supports and chooses to celebrate” transgender people “in a post-gender world,” Alt writes.
   
She pays homage to other transgender figures who have preceded Sampaio and Jenner such as Lea T, the muse of Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci.    
 
She also recalls the trauma endured by supermodel Caroline Cossey, who was an extra in the 1981 film “For Your Eyes Only” and posed for Playboy that year before being outed by Britain's now-defunct News of the World tabloid in 1982.
   
 

A post shared by Valentina Sampaio (@valentts) on Aug 29, 2016 at 7:39am PDT

 
In December, the US magazine National Geographic's cover story was titled “Gender Revolution” and featured Avery Jackson, a nine-year-old transgender girl.
   
Laverne Cox, who stars in the TV series “Orange Is the New Black”, was on the cover of Time magazine in June 2014. 
 
Cosmetics group L'Oreal Paris has selected 24-year-old transgender model and actress Hari Nef to represent its latest foundation cream in a global ad campaign.
   
Alt writes: “The day when a transsexual poses for a magazine cover and it will be no longer necessary to write an editorial on the subject, we will know that the fight has been won.”

TRANSGENDER

Spain backs bill to allow transgender people to easily change gender and name on ID

Spain's left-wing government on Tuesday approved a draft bill that would allow any transgender person over 16 to change their gender and name on their official ID document by presenting a simple statement.

Published: 29 June 2021 16:48 CEST
Spain backs bill to allow transgender people to easily change gender and name on ID
Photo: Jose Jordán/AFP

If adopted by parliament, the bill will make Spain one of the few countries in Europe to permit gender self-determination.

“We’ve approved a bill which will guarantee real and effective equality for trans people and will ensure important rights for LGBTI people that are currently being violated in our country,” said Equality Minister Irene Montero during a press conference.

According to a draft of the bill seen by AFP, any Spaniard over 16 “will be able to apply to change the sex of their entry in the civil registry office”.

They will also be able to change their given name.

Crucially, the change will be made on the basis of a simple statement, dropping a previous requirement for them to first submit medical reports or undergo hormonal treatment.

Unveiled during Madrid’s Pride Week, the bill could even allow those as young as 14 to make the change, but only under certain conditions.

“During this Pride Week, we are making history with a law that will take a giant step forward for LGBTI rights and particularly the rights of transgender people,” Montero said.

“We recognise the right for self-determination of gender identity and undertake ‘de-pathologisation’ meaning trans people will no longer be considered ill and won’t be required to have any kind of psychiatric or medical report in order to be recognised,” she said.

But the legislation sparked tensions between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists and their hard-left junior coalition partner Podemos.

Earlier this year, deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo said she was “particularly concerned by the idea gender could be chosen on the basis of will alone, thereby jeopardising the identity… of the rest of Spain’s 47 million inhabitants”.

The two sides eventually agreed to include a cooling-off period following presentation of the application, with the applicant required to reconfirm their wish three months later.

“This law puts us at the forefront in Europe in terms of recognising the rights of LGBTI people and particularly of trans people,” Montero said.

According to the LGBTI group ILGA, at least 25 UN member states “allow for legal gender recognition without prohibitive requirements.”

But only around 15 countries allow transgender people to change their status on the basis of a simple declaration.

In some countries, the process can take years and may include requirements such as a psychiatric diagnosis, hormone treatment, gender reassignment surgery or even sterilisation.

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