Holiday commercials almost always aim to tug at our heartstrings, but ads that include the idea of returning home for Christmas can hit LGBTQ people especially hard.
Pantene and GLAAD have teamed up to make a series of holiday ads that tell the stories of actual trans people going home from the holidays. The videos themselves keep the holiday cheer by leaning towards optimism and positivity, while also acknowledging that going home isn’t something that all LGBTQ people feel positively about.
“137 million Americans will travel home this holiday season,” begins one ad. “44% of LGBTQ people feel they can’t come home as their true selves.”
The commercial features the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles singing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” and shows us several members of the choir preparing to do just that.
Subsequent videos tell their individual stories.
“The holiday season has drastically transformed for me since coming out as trans,” one woman, Crystal, tells us. She details how her family took some time to learn how to accept her and appreciate her for who she is, but says they have started coming around recently.
The other stories are similar — people whose gender identity has come to differ from the one they were assigned at birth going home for the holidays to a family that has made strides in accepting them for who they are, even if that wasn’t always the case.
And while a lot of the optimistic focus is on the idea that families will eventually come around (and also that your hair is part of your identity — these are Pantene commercials, after all), one person, MJ, reminds everyone that family doesn’t have to mean blood relatives. And sometimes, it won’t.
“The importance of finding chosen family, I think is key in the trans community,” they say.
“For youth going home who are trans and gender nonconforming, let the holidays be a time that they can remember you as your authentic self. Let it be a celebration like it is.”
Pantene's partnership with GLAAD for this campaign also includes a pledge to donate $100,000 to Family Equality, a group dedicated to making sure LGBTQ people have the same opportunities and parental rights as heterosexual couples.
You can check out all the videos on Pantene's YouTube channel.
