LOOK: Miss Trans Global Mela Franco Habijan is on the cover of Trans Beauty magazine
Jan 11, 2021 9:57 PM PHT
Rappler.com
Miss Trans Global 2020 Mela Franco Habijan tweeted on Monday, January 11 her excitement over being the cover girl for the January issue of
Trans Beauty, a magazine based in London. It’s so surreal to see myself on the cover of a magazine. It’s my very first and it’s so poetic! I have my crown and sash on, and it’s for
Trans Beauty Magazine London, she tweeted. I’m a Queen. I am Trans. I am Filipina, she added.
The account exposes who has the privilege and gall within the gay community to party during a pandemic and at whose expense. But why this account, and why now?
While she’s still trying to get the hang of walking in her brand new pair of six-inch stilettos or adjusting her bodice, Swapnil Shinde, reborn at age 39 as Saisha Shinde, appears ready to upstage all the fashionistas that she has been dressing for the past two decades.
Transgender visibility in the country reached new heights after Shinde a fashion designer known for dressing Bollywood actors such as Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor and Sunny Leone came out to the world on Tuesday with a new name and a new face as a transwoman, becoming one of the first to break grounds with her trans identity in India’s pop culture sphere. With a picture of her freshly minted porcelain skin with perfectly arched brows and a delicate glance, a far cry from the heavy stubble and pompadour haircut that previously defined the Wadala-based designer, she shared a long note on social media where she spoke of her struggles with gender identity that led to “loneliness, aches and pressu