Carmen Carrera, First Transgender Victoria's Secret Angel? Petition Pushes for Model
Carmen Carrera could be the first transgender Victoria's Secret angel if her supporters get their way. A controversial Change.com petition was started on behalf of the model calling for her to hit the runway for the company's annual fashion show Dec. 10.
Carmen Carrera, a New Jersey native born Christopher, initially became well known through reality show "RuPaul's Drag Race," coming in fifth. Since then he underwent surgery to become a woman and was signed by Elite Model management. The petition's writer, Marco Regalado of Merced, Calif., believes Carrera's work puts her in the same tier as Gisele Bundchen and Heidi Klum.
Having Carrera on the catwalk would "help to end femmephobia within the LGBTIQQA community" and "show the entire trans community that you embrace them as your patrons," Regalado wrote.
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"She … deserves to walk the same runway as legends like Gisele and Heidi Klum," the petition states. "Angels are selected because of their character and talent. As a brand, Victoria's Secret should feel comfortable marketing towards ALL types of women."
Although over 30,000 people have signed the petition as of this article's publication, some felt the push for Carrera more serves the transgender community more than Victoria's Secret customers.
"This is ridiculous on many levels," KrustySanchez wrote on the Huffington Post blog. "VS sells their products to a) [women] and b) their significant others. Neither of these groups is interested in TG women, so how is VS served by a TG model?"
"If [Victoria's Secret] had decided on their own they wanted to do this, well it's their prerogative ... but to have some group try to force that decision upon them?? ... No, not cool," another user said on MSN.
Others simply felt that Carrera doesn't belong in the show because she wasn't born a woman.
"Can't we have just one thing that the LGBT community doesn't feel the need to conquer?" Alora posted on the Daily Mail blog. "It's so frustrating. Roughly 50 percent of the people on this earth are women so why the h--- would they decide not to use one."
