
Trans Model And Partner Announce Pregnancy
There is nothing more beautiful than bringing a child into the world, even more so for a couple who haveexperiencedhurdles getting there.
This has been more challengingforDannaSaltanaand husband EstebanLandrau,whom both happen to be trans.
MrLandrauis eight months pregnant with their child andhas been updating social media with some beautiful pre-birth pictures, it appears both parents arevery happy.
Severalpublications such as, (It’s Gone Viral)andDaily Mail have covered the special moment for the parents.
Star Observerreached out to the trans community to see how they felt about these articles. Jack Berry who is trans femme commented that they felt pleasedand excited for the couple.
“I love seeing representation of trans men who choose to conceive ifpossible. I think a lot ofcishetsociety, and even some trans circles, expect trans people to be as close to cis as possible and dictate how they should express their gender. I love that people can celebrate that #transisbeautifuland that our bodies are unique.”
Trans man Miles Douglassaid, “It made me happy to see a happy transgender couple having a baby, thriving in life and showing that trans folks have happy fulfilled lives. Its important to have that representation in the media, it helps remove negative stigma which often comes from places of mis-education and misunderstanding.”
It seems that the community isdelightedby such news and are happy for their fellow trans siblings.
However, some felt thatthe language used is problematic.
Gender non-binary personMarcasJamieson said, “Someof the language felt odd tome butis certainly better than what I’ve seen in some other articles.”
They added “Rather than saying born male and identifies as a woman for example, it could just say transgender woman.”
Jack also added that they thought that the person or people who wrote this, could have used different language as opposed to ‘Normal’ when referring to the organs that each MrsSaltanaand MrLandrauhave as itdenormalisestrans people and their surgeries that they have to gothroughin order to transition.
With such a feel-good story, it is sad to see that some of the language used, can cause a bit of discomfort for trans people and people on the gender diverse spectrum.
Is this just in these articles or in media in general, is it in the LGBTQI community also?
We spoke with Michelle Sheppard,a trans womanwho is known for her showMish And Mateson JOY FM,whosaid that media publications do need to educate themselves when it comes to these stories, around these topics, however, Google is not always the best source.
Michelle went on to say“whatwe have in the wider community is a variety of ideas, opinions, and beliefs on what it means to be transgender. Language has even changed for someonelike me who works in media and who is part of community. In my seven years the shift of preferred pronouns, the rising of not just nonbinary but a gender and the removal of genderisa lot to keep track of. Imagine not being exposed to any of the community and stressing about whether you’re doing it right.”
Sheended with “So we need to find a way to work with the mainstream folks whether it’s with JOY FM or another well respected and representedorganisationfor them to go to.”
By Beau Driscoll





