Pantene Teams Up With GLAAD and the Transgender Chorus of LA to Promote LGBTQ Acceptance

While the holidays are often a time of merriment and catching up with friends and family, many LGBTQ members of our community face the season filled with anxiety and fear. In fact, 44% of LGBTQ people feel they can’t come home as their true selves. Knowing the challenges they face over the holidays, Pantene has partnered with GLAAD and the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles (TCLA) to create the Going Home for the Holidays campaign.

TCLA is the first all transgender identified choir in America, and the video campaign uses not just their powerful voices but also their powerful stories to drive home the emotional tumult many LGBTQ people deal with during this season. Crystal S., a TCLA member, says the holiday season has “drastically transformed” for her since coming out as trans, but that over time, her family grew to accept and embrace her for who she is.

“To any young trans person going home for the holidays, stay strong, give them time, because they will come around,” she says.

19-year-old Steven H. says that even for people with an accepting family, the holidays are a time when members of the LGBTQ community have to “brace themselves” when heading home to meet with extended family and relatives, which is simply unacceptable.

“To me, being home is being somewhere where you don’t have to worry about the identity that you broadcast to the rest of the world and all of it falls away, and you can just be yourself,” he says.

“Inclusion is at the heart of Pantene’s mission to celebrate the beauty of all transformations and of all people,” said Ilaria Resta, Vice President of Procter & Gamble, in a press statement. “Hearing these LGBTQ individuals speak about the trials and triumphs of going home for the holidays—as well as their irrepressible desire to be their true selves—will inspire others in the community and remind us all what true beauty is about.”

Going Home for the Holidays builds on Pantene’s Don’t Hate me Because I’m Beautiful campaign, launched during this year’s Pride Month. In addition to this campaign, Pantene has pledged to make a $100,000 donation to Family Equality, an organization that provides LGBTQ members with the opportunity to form and sustain a loving family.

Watch the full video campaign below:

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