(Photo: biography.com)
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — Richard Branson,Virgin Air CEO, lost a wager to AirAsia X boss Tony Fernandes, and agrees to dress in drag and serve as a flight “stewardess” on Fernandes’ airline.
While I cannot say for sure if this exploitation was initiated by the writer of the source article or if Branson and Fernandes are pulling off a PR stunt, but either way, it slams trans people — ‘You lose, you gotta be a tranny,’ we’re sick of this.
From the eTN article: “Branson is keen on putting a check mark on what may very well be called a kind of “final frontier,” when he becomes the first gender-bending airline CEO in history to serve on an actual flight. Branson himself has admitted to have “done some outrageous things” in his life, but becoming a tranny for a day “will be up there with the best of them.”
It becomes apparent the writer of the article, Nelson Alcantara, eTN’s editor-in-chief, thinks Branson is doing us a favor: “While the distinction of being the first commercial airline to hire transsexuals as flight attendants belongs to Thailand’s PC Air, Branson could pave the way for airlines to provide equal opportunities for transsexuals who aspire to become Virgin flight attendants.”
Trans people don’t want to become flight attendants because they are transgender, they just want an equal opportunity at becoming a flight attendant as anyone else.
Both Branson and the writer are in dire need of education on all things trans.
[Trigger Warning] Virgin Air CEO now a flight attendant in drag VisitBritain reacts to Virgin boss becoming a tranny ….
(Photo: biography.com)
———–
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT is associated with Wipe Out Transphobia: http://www.wipeouttransphobia.com/
Support this site, get the low-cost, transgender-themed feature film “Lexie Cannes“ DVD here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0963781332 Or via PayPal: http://goo.gl/fTG32
Follow THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT on Facebook/Twitter/WordPress/Digg/Tumblr/Pinterest/Instagram/Reddit
Categories: Transgender, Transsexual, Trans
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS 
Why do some people take being transgender as a joke take it from me it’s not I’ve bin transgender all my life it’s not some thing you turn off an on its with you 24/7 and I’m very proud of who I am don’t just live a day as tg try living your whole life as tg then you would no how different your life is to others
another rich dumbass. alexis, i think you should send him a nice explanation about how this is not acceptable.
Sensationalism at its most tedious/predictable. I’ve no idea why cross-dressing (which is all this is) should be considered outrageous in the first place.
Its always the same ….im transsexual woman and I live with people everyday as a woman …..Why do people think we are any different to genetic women …I really winds me up to keep seeing adverts and people keep “tarring us” with the same brush…Trans women are not “Blokes dressed in frocks”…
Its always the same !!! Im a transsexual woman and I live with people everyday just like a “genetic Woman” …I am fed up with adverts and people like this tarring us with the same brush as “Blokes in frocks “….
– “While the distinction of being the first commercial airline to hire transsexuals as flight attendants belongs to Thailand’s PC Air” –
This is simply not true. I personally know more than a handful of transwomen working at several airlines as pilots and as stewardesses. The only difference is that these airlines don’t brag about it and turn it into a media circus.
Hi Lexie, once again I want to thank you for the great work that you do keeping us informed about trans issues from everywhere. While I realize that I should be upset by this story, For some reason I am not, and I am trying to think it through as to why my gut feeling about this specific insident is actually more positive that negitive. I suppose I just expect that Richard Branson will show us in a positive light even if this is just a publicity stunt. Any kind of positive publicity directed at our community is a good thing. I think that Branson, specifficly, Has earned the benifit of the doubt. If we can look at RuPaul’s DragRace as fun and inoffensive, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be seen as something similar. The potential for positive publicity is so huge with no real downside.
Also, I have a story that you might be intrested in, what would be the best way to get it to you?
Not everyone sees things the same way — that I get, but in Branson’s case, he’s an international figure, who made his bucks doing PR stunts so I’m holding him to a higher standard.
He is simply playing black face.
Impersonators are playing black face too.
It was the news source. This one I came across a few weeks ago. http://asiancorrespondent.com/104927/election-2013-branson-stunt-raises-transgender-issue-ahead-of-malaysia-poll/
The guy is very supportive actually, so it would be a good thing to not blame him for what the writer said.
I’ll wait until Richard Branson posts a public explanation of what he thinks he’s accomplishing, and if he understands how demonizing this terminology is to us.
Thanks for the comments everyone!
Isn’t this story a bit old? I heard about this over a year ago and for the record I am a transwoman.
The story is 2 days old.
The Asian Correspondent story, that i put the link for before, showed up on Apr 12, 2013; the day that I put it up on the places I admin. It is not over a year old though as the publicity from it is reportedly having some effect on the Malaysia elections which are held in a few days, on May 5th, in regard to transgender and gender non-conforming people’s issues.
Then this is not the first time he’s done this. After googeling this I have found articles about this as early as December 2009.
That is possible. Remember that this is the guy that does stuff just because he hasn’t before and it sounds like it may be entertaining. The same guy that made a ballon to try and fly around the world, sunk money in to a solar powered air plane. Another adventure was the few different versions of a plane to fly around the world with on fuel load. I highly doubt that he is meaning offense, nor that he finds wearing clothing of any gender offensive. Kinda goes with that bit that keeps showing up with Iggy Pop of ‘the reason you think my wearing women’s clothes is offensive is because you think that being a woman is offensive.’ going to have to go with that in this case I guess.