Valentina Sampaio Makes Trans Modeling History Again!

23 year old Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio is getting quite accustomed to making history.,

In 2017 she became the first out trans model to appear on the cover of VOGUE Paris.  Two years later she became the first out trans model to be hired by Victoria's Secret.

And now, Sampaio becomes the first out trans model to appear in the iconic Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.   It's another historic step for her, but another giant leap in visibility for our embattled community.

Sampaio has always been vocal about supporting the trans community in her home country and across the world, and it's a major reason why I'm so down for her. 

She noted in her SI essay that 129 trans people were murdered in Brazil last year, and has called for Brazil to recognize the humanity and human rights of trans Brazilians.  She also finds it bitterly ironic that she receives more love and support outside of Brazil than she does at home.

Congratulations Valentina on making history again.   Going to be interesting to see what history you make next in the modeling world. 

Victoria's Secret Hires First Out Trans Model

It came after their stock price dropped 40%, they had to close 53 stores across the USA, their CEO Jan Singer resigned, they announced they aren't doing the televised Victoria's Secret fashion show after it had it's worst ratings ever, and lost model Karlie Kloss over chief marketing office Ed Rezek's transphobic comments.

Congrats to Brazilian model Valentina Sampaio, who was just hired as their first out trans model.

The 22 year old Sampaio is no stranger to blazing trails in the modeling industry.  She was the first out trans model to ever grace the cover of French Vogue and the first to do so for Brazilian Vogue in her native Brazil.

And now she become the first trans angel, as Vickie's Secret calls their models.

Will they be hiring more trans models to rip their runways?   And when the Victoria's Secret Fashion show comes back on TV after its retooling, will a diverse group of models be part of it?

That remains to be seen if it happens. 

But congrats to Valentina Sampaio for making that breakthrough.   Hope it leads to many more trans models getting a shot to wear those Victoria's Secret angel wings.

MIQ 2016 Runner Up Competes In 2019 Miss Rio Pageant

The date and site for the 2019 Miss Universe pageant has yet to be determined, but Angela Ponce's historic trip to Bangkok to compete in Miss Universe has inspired other trans pageant beauties around the globe to try to make pageant history in their own nations.

One of those is in Brazil.

25 year old Nathalie Oliveira is starting her quest to be on the 2019 Miss Universe stage by competing in the Miss Rio de Janeiro pageant that takes place this weekend on January 26. 

It is a preliminary for the Miss Brazil Universe pageant that will take place later this year, and she is the first out Brazilian trans woman who has ever entered this regional pageant.

Oliveira was the winner of the Miss Trans Brazil pageant, and was the first runner up in the 2016 Thailand based Miss International Queen contest.     She also has a YouTube channel with over 15,000 subscribers that covers topics that include makeup, travel, and transsexuality

Good luck to Nathy!  Here's hoping she gets a step closer to being on the 2019 Miss Universe stage

Afro Brazilian Trans Woman Gets Elected In Brazil!

There were over 50 trans candidates running in Brazil for various seats at all levels of the Brazilian government when their election took place on October 7. So far only one has broken through to make Brazilian electoral history.

She is Erica Malunguinho, an Afro-Brazilian community leader and activist who just became the first trans person to win elective office in a state congress in Sao Paulo.

She is the founder of Aparela Luzio, a space since its 2016 opening that has become important to Brazil's Black population.   Now this groundbreaking win.

Malunguinho was motivated to run after the March 13 assassination of queer Afro Brazilian politician Marielle Franco.    Franco was murdered a few days after she spoke out against police brutality   

Malunguinho was also part of the 'Seeds of Marielle' collective of 231 Black female candidates running for office in the country in memory of the slain advocate, and was deeply affected by Franco's murder.

“I cried a lot when I heard about Marielle’s murder,” she told Afropunk. “Her political project was just wiped out. It was a message to us that we should not be there fighting over our bodies and resisting genocide and racism. I had so much hate in me. At the same time, I knew I needed to take this hate and do something positive with it.”

That you did.   This is a groundbreaking win for Brazilian transkind and the Afro Brazilian community.   May you represent those communities well and to the best of your ability.        

Brazilian Trans People Running For Office

It was nearly 20 years ago when Georgina Beyer made international news by being elected to the New Zealand Parliament on November 27, 1999.    She served until 2007, and her win inspired trans people in other nations around the world to take that next step in our trans rights movement evolution and run for public office.

Beyer's win led to Vladimir Luxuria in Italy, Michelle Suárez in Uruguay, Tamara Adrian in Venezuela, Anna Grodzka of Poland and Geraldine Roman of the Philippines getting elected to their national legislatures.     

While we have yet in the United States to have a trans person successfully run for the US House or Senate, we do have trans people serving on school boards, city councils in Palm Springs, CA and Minneapolis and one state legislator in Virginia Del Danica Roem.  If the election breaks our way in Vermont in four weeks, we could have our first trans governor in Christine Hallquist.

Our Brazilian trans siblings over the last few years have witnessed trans people get elected to their national legislatures in Venezuela and neighboring Uruguay.  They have also watched with interest as trans people in Colombia, Bolivia and Chile have attempted to do so.

And with no national level human rights protections combined with an off the charts epidemic of anti-trans violence aimed at Brazilian trans people, it was just a matter of time before Brazil's trans community had people step up in numbers to run for office in their homeland.

According to ANTRA, the National Association of Transvestites and Transexuals,  there are 53 trans candidates running for office in the upcoming Brazilian national elections on October 7, a tenfold increase over the five trans people who ran for office in 2014.

Of the Brazilian trans candidates in this cycle, 17 are running for national congressional seats, 33 for state congress sears, two for district Congress and one for the Senate. 

One of those people running for a national seat is Brazil's first trans volleyball player, Tiffany Abreu.  She the first out trans person ever to play in Brazil's Superliga, the premier league in the nation for women's volleyball.   Despite vehement transphobic criticism from other players since she joined in December, is vying for a spot on Brazil's 2020 Olympic team.

She's gotten criticism from other Brazilian trans people as well for running as a candidate for a center-right party, but in Abreu's words, "I don't give any importance to parties, but to people,"

Duda Salabert is the person running for the Brazilian senate.   Salabert said she doesn't want debates around her senatorial campaign to represent the state of Minas Gerais to revolve solely around the issue of trans women.

"The main agenda of my candidacy is education as I've been a teacher for 18 years. I defend public education, public universities, research and I also propose debt forgiveness for unemployed students. Investments in education are investments in the fight against LGBT-phobia."

As the largest country in South America, it's past time that it happened in Brazil   Good luck to all of these trans candidates running for office and hope they make electoral history in their nation and for the international trans community.

Justice For Dandara!

You may recall the vicious February 15 beating and murder last year of 42 year old Brazilian trans woman Dandara dos Santos by several wastes of DNA men that was captured on video. 

2017 also happened to be the deadliest year on record for TBLGQ murders in Brazil.

Dandara was taken out of her home in Fortaleza, stripped, beaten, kicked, stoned and mocked by the killers as she pleaded for her life.  She had transphobic and homophobic slurs hurled at her before she was thrown into a wheelbarrow and carted off. to be shot to death.

The brutal videotaped murder sent shockwaves around the world and outraged the Brazilian and global trans community.  The video also lead to the identification and arrest of the mob of  men  who killed her. .

Justice was finally served in that case as five of the eight participants in this heinous crime received a combined 83 years in jail .

Francisco Jose Monteiro de Oliveira, Jr. who shot dos Santos, was given 21 years in prison.   Jean Victor Silva Oliveira, who attacked her with a wooden board, received a 16 year prison sentence.

Rafael Alves da Silva Paiva, who was filed repeatedly kicking Dandara, was also sentenced to 16 years in jail along with Francisco Gabriel dos Reis.   Isaias da Silva Camurca was sentenced to 14 years and 6 months for his part in the attack on our trans sister, beating her with flip flops.

Jean Oliveira and Paivi are appealing their sentences on the basis of their actions weren't decisive in causing Dandara's death.

Incredibly all of the men tried make the claim that while they attacked her, they weren't responsible for her death. 

It was a claim that prosecutor Marcus Renan Palacio dismissed by saying to them, "No one killed Dandara?   Was it lightning that fell on her head?  Was it a stone from a building?

Francisco Oliveira after being sentenced tried to apologize to Dandara's relatives, claiming that he'd committed the crime because he was deluded and he'd learned he has to have love in his heart.

You were right about the deluded part.   But the date you needed to have love in your heart was on February 15, 2017, not when your azz is about to do 21 years in prison from murdering another human being.

Paula Oliveira Becomes First Trans Miss Bum Bum Contestant

One of the most interesting pageants that happens in Brazil is the Miss BumBum one.

It started in 2011, and has women from each of Brazil's 27 states vying for the title of having Brazil's best derriere.  People from all over the world can vote for their favorite.  The finalists then participate in a photoshoot and strutting down a catwalk before the winner is declared.

The contest is so popular that the winner and the runner up becomes an instant celebrity in that nation, and it can also lead to lucrative endorsement deals.

The stakes are high, and the pageant has fueled controversy.  Fights have broken out between contestants during past events.    In 2014 models Mari Sousa and Eliana Amaral were accused of bribing judges in their failed attempt to come in first and second place in the contest that Indianara Carvalho and Claudia Alende eventually captured as the champion andvice champion.

Also in 2014, 2012 Miss Bum Bum runner up and cosmetic surgery advocate Andressa Urach ended up in the hospital suffering from near fatal septic shock after the 500ml of Pmma and hydrogel pumped in her upper thighs to make them look thicker instead started rotting the upper leg muscles to the point she had to undergo emergency surgery to get the fluid drained. 

But in the last year of this competition, it makes history.  This year, one of the Miss Bum Bum contestants for the first time is a trans woman in the person of  27 year old Paula Oliveira.

The model had to wait two years for her documentation changes to be approved and processed before she could compete.   She's a former Big Brother Brazil contestant who in an attempt to get a jump on the competition, posted a racy photo shoot on her Instagram page focused on her derriere

A serriere she hopes that will be crowned the best in Brazil.

Because this is the last ever Miss Bum Bum pageant,  Paula will also be the last trans woman who has a shot at winning the title. 

We'll see if that happens for her.

Brazilian Trans Community Embraces Hit Soap Opera 'Edge Of Desire'

Here in the US, we not only get to see ourselves represented on screen, we are at the point that we have trans actors playing the trans roles we see on our broadcast networks.

Currently we get to see the lovely Amiyah Scott on the FOX show Star,  Laverne Cox in Orange Is The New Black and Doubt, Trace Lysette on Transparent, and Rain Valdez on Lopez.

Down in Brazil, the embattled trans community turns their TV sets to the Globo network to watch the hit soap opera Edge Of Desire which features a lead trans character played by actress Carol Duarte named Ivana who is transitioning in the transmasculine direction to Ivan.

Several of the Edge of Desire supporting characters are trans persons once they step out of the studio for taping. 

The soap has the most watched Brazilian newscast as a lead in, and is created and written by Gloria Perez. 

"The soap opera is a reflection of Brazilian society at any given moment," she said..  Perez also wanted to create a transgender character that viewers would feel empathy for and also start a conversation in a nation that had 144 trans murders last year.

"I thought it was time to talk about it," said Perez. 

Perez has succeeded in creating a character viewers have empathy for.  The Brazil trans community believes that this is the most accurate and nuanced fictional portrayal of their lives ever in Brazilian media.

And they along with the 50 million viewers watching the show have followed every moment of Ivan's transition from the conversation with her mother after Ivan cut his hair,  his increasingly tense home life to the employment discrimination and attacks from strangers he faced while out and about in Brazilian society.

Carol Duarte felt the role was a daunting responsibility at first, but has been surprised by the positive reception for her character.  'But the reaction has been so warm and supportive.  People are cheering for Ivan to find his own happiness."

Here's hoping there's a dual happy ending not only for Ivan, but for the Brazilian trans community.

Valentina Sampaio Appears On Cover Of Brazilian ELLE

While we were embroiled in the final stages of our contentious presidential election, there was a little trans history being made in Brazil from the modeling world.

19 year old model Valentina Sampaio became only the second trans person ever since Lea T did so in 2011 to grace the cover of ELLE Brazil.

That ELLE Brazil cover featuring Sampaio was released in November 2016.

There was also a L'Oreal commercial that ran during International Women's Day of Valentina getting made up to take her new Brazilian ID photo.

 

She's just the newest member of the long stylish line of trans models that goes back to the 1960's that gets more beautiful , groundbreaking and expansive very day..

2016 Olympics Watch- Darn, It's Over

The 2016 Rio Olympic Games are coming to a close today, and far from Donald Trump's loud and wrong assertion that the USA doesn't win anymore, that's all Team USA in all its diverse glory has been doing since the Games kicked off August 6 .

In many cases, they were historic wins in several sports like our first ever medals in the triathlon, or first medals of of any color in many sports in decades.

Team USA led all nations with 121 medals won, and 46 of them were gold.  The rest of the top five nations in the 2016 Rio Olympic medal count were Great Britain  (27 golds, 67 medals). China (26 golds, 70 medals) , Russia (19 golds, 56 total), and Germany (17 golds, 42 medals).

The closing ceremonies will happen starting at 7 PM CDT, and Simone Biles will be leading Team USA into the Maracana stadium as our flag bearer.  She's the first gymnast to be given that honor.

But after watching the competition in Rio play out over the last two weeks, I'm always sad when I see the Olympic flag come down from the flagpole where it has proudly flapped during the Games, get marched out of the stadium and the Olympic flame get extinguished.

This was also an interesting Olympics for me because I was in Washington DC when the opening ceremonies happened, watching some events from Chautauqua, and now back home in Houston for the closing ceremonies.

Fortunately because since 1992 the winter and summer Games are no longer contested in the same year, won't have to wait too long until Olympic sporting action happens again in just two short years in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The next summer games are in Tokyo, and will be interesting to see what happens for the Team USA Olympians that gather to compete four years from now in the Land of the Rising Sun.

2016 Olympics Watch-Semenya Wins Gold!

Well haters, Caster Semenya handled her Olympic business and won the 800m gold that eluded her in London.  

Semenya won her race in a personal best time of 1:55:28, which is not only the best time run in the world in the 800m this year, it was also a South African national record.

What was even more delicious for me was that the silver and bronze medalists who finished behind the Olympic champion were also continental Africans.  Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba captured the silver and Kenya's Margaret Wambui took the bronze/

.And unfortunately, the same innuendo that has dogged Semenya since 2009 has popped up in Rio to shadow the silver and bronze medalists.

Niyonsaba took the lead in the race with 300m to go but Semenya unleashed her finishing kick with 150m left in the race to win

The haters can keep on pouting in the corner and trying to throw shade at the now 25 year old Semenya.  The 800m gold medal is still going back to South Africa with Caster,  

Congratulations, and see you in 2020 sis as you defend your title in Tokyo.

2016 Olympic Watch- Going For The Sixpeat!

The five time defending Olympic champion USA women's basketball team has been marching toward this hopefully golden moment ever since they opened the Games on August 7 with a 121-56 blowout win in Group B play with Senegal.

The Team USA women then smashed Spain 103-63, Serbia 110-84, Canada 81-51, and China 102-65 to exit Group B play with a 5-0 record.

They then entered the knockout rounds and rolled to a 110-64 win over Japan on August 16 and punched their ticket to the gold medal game with an 86-67 win over FIBA number four ranked France to get to the Olympic basketball final for the sixth time since 1996.

This matchup for the gold medal is with a familiar foe in Spain. In addition to Team USA taking them down in the group stage, they vanquished the Spanish women in the 2014 FIBA World Championship final.

So how impressive and dominant is this 2016 Olympic version of Team USA?  

*They set the all time USA women point record (121) in the Senegal win.
*Set the US record for largest point differential in a game with the 65 point win over Senegal
*They became the first women's Olympic squad to score 100 points in three straight games.
*Set a new Olympic record of 40 assists in one game after tying the Olympic record of 36 assists set by the Soviet Union back in 1976.
* Have beaten their Rio Olympic competition by an average of 38.4 points

A lot is on the line for the Team USA women in addition to capturing their sixth consecutive gold medal since the 1996 Atlanta Games.  Also on the line is continued women's worldwide basketball supremacy, the FIBA number one ranking and auto qualifying spot in the 2019 FIBA championships, and their Olympic winning streak that has now reached 48 straight games since they won the bronze medal in Barcelona in 1992.

There is concern in the Team USA camp with point guard Sue Bird being day to day with a sprained knee suffered in the second quarter of the Japan game, but they are determined to complete their mission of being on the top step of the Olympic platform when this game is over.

If by some miracle Spain wins this game, it would be the biggest upset in Olympic basketball history and rank with the 1972 Munich gold medal game versus the Soviet Union the USA men had stolen from them in the final seconds.

Don't think this gold medal game with Spain will be that close, seeing that Team USA beat Spain by 40 points in pool play and the closest anyone has been to them was France in the semifinal, and they beat France by 19 points without Sue Bird in the lineup.

But Spain won't be rolling over for them either, and have some game film to study as a result of that pool play game. Game film cuts both ways, and we have Geno Auriemma on our bench and they don't.

We'll see if Team USA can win number 49 in a row today and their sixth straight gold medal at 1:30 PM CDT.

2016 Olympics Watch- Caster Semenya To 800m Final

I was happy to see Caster Semenya of South Africa after all the drama she has been through since bursting into the world's consciousness at age 18 during the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin by running and winning the 800m in the fifth fastest time ever run by a woman.

She went through Hades after that because it is assumed she has a condition called hyperandrogenism, that naturally produces more testosterone in her body than the average female athlete, and some peeps are complaining that isn't fair to other female competitors.

Nobody complains about Michael Phelps feet acting like dolphin flippers when he's swimming. Nobody complains about Usain Bolt's 6'5" frame and long stride that allows him to effortlessly run away from his competition in the second half of 100m and 200m races.

What they do is just deal with the fact they are born with some competitive advantages, train harder and do their best to beat him.  Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

But the fact Semenya is a continental African running in an athletics race that has been one that white female athletes have until recently dominated is probably one of the reasons I believe why she's gotten so much unwarranted crap and scrutiny.

It's one of the many reasons why I'm rooting for Semenya to win the gold medal she ironically lost out on in London to an allegedly steroid fueled Russian competitor in Mariya Savinova four years ago.

She won her 800m semifinal heat in 1:58.15 to get her to the finals with the best time.

Semenya is considered the favorite to be standing atop the medal podium hearing the South African national anthem after taking a silver medal in London.

And I'm going to have fun hopefully watching her do so.  

2016 Olympics Watch- Watching Legends Win

I've been watching the Olympics since the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, and have been fortunate to be around to see some legendary athletes and performances on the Olympic stage along with all the drama as well.

From Jim Hines breaking the 10 second barrier in the 100m to Edwin Moses dominating the 400m hurdles in 1976, (1980 we boycotted the Moscow Games) 1984 and winning 122 straight international races along the way to Flo Jo in 1988, I've gotten to see some amazing legendary athletes in not just athletics (track and field to us Americans) but across all sports.

The Rio Games hasn't been any different, because we have gotten to witness Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt cement his legacy as one of the greatest of all time with threepeats in the 100m, 200m and can tonight with a threepeat win in the 4x100m relay to capture his ninth gold medal since his world record setting 2008 Olympic debut in Beijing.

Michael Phelps has done the same thing in the pool by bumping up his gold medal total to an incredible 23 golds (3 silvers, 2 bronze medals) 28 medals won over an Olympic career that started with him winning zero medals in Sydney in 2000 but being they youngest qualifier for an Olympic team at age 15 in 68 years.

He is now the most decorated Olympic athlete ever, and one of the greatest US swimmers since Mark Spitz in 1972.

There is also the sustained excellence of the USA women in basketball, who are FIBA's number one ranked squad and the defending world and Olympic champions.  

The Team USA women ballers have won five straight gold medals since the 1996 Atlanta Games and will play for their sixth consecutive gold medal tomorrow against a Spanish team they demolished in pool play 103-63.

They beat FIBA fourth ranked France in the semis 86-67 to advance to the gold medal match and win their 48th consecutive game in Olympic play since the 1992 Barcelona Games bronze medal game.

But since Team USA played Spain already in pool play and blew them out, I'm thinking that with much higher stakes in this match, Spain will step up their level of play.  Hopefully Sue Bird will be back in the Team USA lineup after missing the semifinal game with a strained knee

There was also a surprise medal from another legendary athlete in Venus Williams.  After shocking losses in the Rio Olympic singles and doubles tournament, Venus made it to the mixed doubles gold medal final with her partner Rajeev Ram, but fell to fellow Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Jack Sock.

The silver medal she earned with Ram was Venus' fifth medal in Olympic tennis competition dating back to the 2000 Sydney Games.  Williams won gold in the singles and in the doubles competition with little sis Serena in Sydney, Beijing (2008) and in London (2012).  

But it's also a time to watch potential Olympic stars and legends emerge as well.  One of those is Ashton Eaton, who became the first man to repeat as the Olympic decathlon champion since Daley Thompson of Great Britain won back to back decathlons in 1980 and 1984.   Will he attempt the decathlon threepeat that no one has ever accomplished in Tokyo?

We'll have to wait until 2020 to find out.   But it sure has been fun to watch legends win.

2016 Olympics Watch- USA Women Ballers Rolling In Group Play

The USA women's ballers started this Olympic tournament heavily favored to win their sixth straight gold medal since 1996, and were carrying a 58-3 record and 41 game Olympic winning streak into Group B play.

They opened Group B play by whipping out their A+ game, jumping out to a 35-9 first quarter lead, shooting 70.3% in the first half, and coasting to a 121-56 blowout win over Senegal on August 7.

The lights out shooting eventually cooled off somewhat to have them finish with 64.8% shooting for the game, but it was a nice way to start Olympic group play.   The Team USA women had seven players in double figures, and the 121 points scored was the most ever by a USA women's team in Olympic play.  The 65 point margin of victory was also the largest ever.  

The next day at Deodoro Youth Arena found the Team USA facing Spain, and after trailing by two points for several minutes early in the first quarter, went on a 7-0 run fueled by Brittney Griner's eight first quarter points to flip that negative script into a 15 point first quarter lead they would never relinquish as they notched their second win of the Olympic tournament by taking down Spain 106-63.

Five USA players scored in double digits in this game, and 55 of their points came from off the bench as they built that first quarter advantage to a 57-35 halftime lead despite only outscoring Spain in the second quarter 25-23.

The 43rd consecutive Olympic win pushed Team USA to 2-0 in group play and their next game will be on Wednesday against winless (0-2) Serbia, and we face our northern neighbors Canada , who are unbeaten for now at 2-0 on August 12.    Their final group play game will be against China on August 14.

2016 Williams Watch-Shocking Olympic Exits

This Olympic trip to Rio has not been a good one so far for my fave tennis playing siblings.

On Saturday I got to painfully watch fifth seeded Venus go from being two points from winning her match and moving on to a second round match in the Olympic tennis singles tournament to a WTF loss to Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5-7) .

The pain got worse for we fans of the Williams sisters as we watched the once unbeaten Olympic in doubles and three time Olympic doubles gold medalists have a bad day at the office.

The number on seeded doubles team and defending Olympic champions shockingly suffered their first ever Olympic doubles loss after 15 straight wins in the first round to Barbora Strycova and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in straight sets  3-6, 4-6.

But all is not lost .  You will see a Williams sister playing tennis in Rio.   Number one seeded and defending Olympic singles champion Serena is still alive in the Olympic women's singles competition.   She beat Australia's Danila Gavrilova 6-4, 6-2 to move on to her second round match against Alize Cornet of France.

Winner takes on 15th seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the third round