Sephora Is Supporting Trans People With Its Latest Campaign And Collection

Transgender rights are being threatened across the globe but we're happy to report that Sephora is taking a stand for trans inclusion with their recent ad campaign, We Belong to Something Beautiful.

While the company came under fire earlier this week for racially profiling SZA and ultimately shut down their stores for an hour of diversity training, the campaign comes at a critical time — not only is June Pride Month in the United States, but at the end of May, the US government rolled back protections put in place by the Obama administration that banned discrimination against transgender medical patients. This means that the already vulnerable group are even more at risk. Even more recently, two transgender women were murdered in Texas, pointing to a much larger problem of violence targeting trans people.

Subtler forms of discrimination against trans people happen daily, including slurs, misgendering, and denied service. These are symptoms of larger issues that lead to the normalization of trans people’s personhood being denied. And this is why it’s important for allies, including companies and brands, to loudly and publicly announce their support for transgender people (and follow up on these campaigns by providing inclusivity training for staff).

In 2016, Sephora began providing in-store make-up classes and online tutorials specifically geared towards transgender people and people transitioning. “To see a company cater to the trans and queer community not as token models in one-off beauty campaigns, but in centering us as essential to their community is a relief,” Arabelle Sicardi wrote in an article about Sephora’s class offerings for them. “By employing trans people and providing them resources through which they can help themselves and their customers, they’re showing that beauty and politics are linked, all the time, and sometimes wonderfully,” they continued.

As makeup is intimately connected to how we look and feel about ourselves, and how people perceive us, Sephora’s latest campaign, which is directed by Matt Lambert, who is known for his work with the LGBTQ community, is the first ad in connection with its new Belong campaign. Titled "Identify as We", the video has beautiful cinematography and features transgender, genderqueer, and non-binary models including Aaron Philip, Hunter Schafer, and Fatima Jamal.

According to the brand, the ad is part of a new, multi-chapter platform meant to celebrate, "different forms of diversity and inclusion in beauty". The “Identify as We” launch also includes a new “Trans is Beautiful” group within the online Beauty Insider Community while this month, Sephora is also introducing its first-ever “SEPHORAHeartPRIDE” collection, featuring ten branded offerings that celebrate and support PRIDE. Going one step further, Sephora will donate $1 to support LGBTQ organizations for every product sold (the company says it is working Tides Foundation to coordinate the donations).

It’s imperative for stores like Sephora to be safe places for transgender, people transitioning, and queer people to access beauty products without experiencing discrimination. Accordingly, the ad begins: They, she, ze, he, we. We belong to something beautiful. We’re happy to see the company fighting for some of society's most vulnerable to feel a greater sense of belonging in an often hostile world.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue