Gender Proud, a transgender rights organization founded in early 2014, today released an inaugural video featuring its founder, transgender model and activist Geena Rocero, and Carmen Carrera, transgender reality show personality, calling for broader legal rights to self identify.
In the video, Rocero, who came out publicly in an inspiring TED talk that has been viewed by more than 2.1 million people since March, urges countries to allow transgender people to use their chosen names and gender on government documents - including passports.
“Every day trans people all over the world face extraordinary discrimination simply because their official documents don’t match their chosen gender,” Rocero says. In the video, she describes her own harsh questioning by airport immigration officials over her passport’s gender marker.
It was an experience, she says, that left her feeling “helpless and humiliated.”
Carrera, who has appeared on Logo TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, relates similar experiences with airport security workers who “feel it’s okay to pick on me.”
The new video is a pivotal part of Gender Proud’s awareness campaign, which aims to start new and more enlightened conversations about transgender justice and equality. In addition to Rocero and Carrera, it also features five other transgender activists and artists, many of whom met while working on Barney’s breakthrough photo campaign, ‘Brothers, Sisters, Sons + Daughters’:
● Carmen Carrera, Transgender Model + Star, ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’
● Peche Di, Transgender Model, Filmmaker
● Sawyer DeVuyst, Interior Designer
● Tiq Milan, Senior Program Manager, GLAAD
● Devin-Norelle, Transgender Blogger + Activist
“It’s basic human rights,” Rocero says in the video.
The video was produced in partnership with Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Leitner Center at Fordham Law School.
