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 have experienced hurdles getting there. 

This has been more challenging for Danna Saltana and husband Esteban Landrau, whom both happen to be trans.

Mr Landrau is eight months pregnant with their child and has been updating social media with some beautiful pre-birth pictures, it appears both parents are very happy.

Several publications such as UNILAD, igvofficial.com (It’s Gone Viral) and Daily Mail have covered the special moment for the parents.

Star Observer reached out to the trans community to see how they felt about these articles. Jack Berry who is trans femme commented that they felt pleased and excited for the couple.

 “I love seeing representation of trans men who choose to conceive if possible. I think a lot of cishet society, 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 #transisbeautiful and that our bodies are unique.”

Trans man Miles Douglas said, “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 is delighted by such news and are happy for their fellow trans siblings.

However, some felt that the language used is problematic.

 Gender non-binary person Marcas Jamieson said, “Some of the language felt odd to me but is 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 Mrs Saltana and Mr Landrau have as it denormalises trans people and their surgeries that they have to go through in 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 woman who is known for her show Mish And Mates on JOY FM, who said 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 “what we 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 someone like 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 gender is a lot to keep track of. Imagine not being exposed to any of the community and stressing about whether you’re doing it right.”

She ended 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 represented organisation for them to go to.”

By Beau Driscoll