Roberto Bete, a female-to-male transgender reality TV show participant, was featured alongside his partner Erika Fernandes, a male-to-female transgender person, in Calvin Klein’s Mother’s Day ad campaign.
Bete, who appeared on “O Crush Perfeito,” a Netflix dating show for Brazilian audiences, was featured as part of a campaign that Calvin Klein described as “spotlighting the realities of new families.”
“We can reproduce biologically or from the heart…our place is to love and be loved,” Calvin Klein captioned the photo of the trans couple.
The Phillips-Van Hausen Corporation (PVH) owns the American fashion house. PVH has pursued an aggressive social responsibility policy which they openly describe as a commitment to “bold and progressive ideals” to “define the future.”
Our Calvin Klein business has always rallied around bold and progressive ideals. Through our commitments, we’ll help reinvent what’s possible and create a future that defies the status quo. We will break free from the boundaries that put people in boxes and the ideas and attitudes that hold us back. We will build a business with zero tolerance for injustice, where fashion has nothing to hide. We will help change the climate for the better and make products that make fashion a force for good. Together, we will defy expectations and define the future.
Comments on the Instagram post were mixed. “Amazing,” one user commented. Many others expressed being disturbed by the brand opting to push a social agenda.
“Guess we shall be seeing more of your clothes on the clearance rack in Ross, Marshalls, and TJMaxx. Turns out 1984 was a prophetic book,” another user commented.
As for Bete, who has since given birth, the transgender reality TV participant had this to say about his experience:
“It scares me a little bit what life will be like after birth if I’m going to handle everything and still be a good father, but I believe that God already has his plans,” Bete said. “I also accept that I’m not perfect and that I won’t be either when I become a father, but that in the midst of my imperfection I manage to be the most human. Because, for me, the purpose of all this is to be able to leave this world with an incredibly better contribution.”
Quotes in this article were machine translated.
