LGBT: The 1st trans woman to make drinks for the Hilton – 06/27/2023 – Market

Rochelly Rangel says she left home at the age of 15, after being attacked. Since then, she has had to resort to numerous forms of informal work – from beauty salons to prostitution. Today, at the age of 36, she is the first trans woman to sign a drinks menu for the Hilton hotel chain in Brazil, in Copacabana.

The path was hard. When she worked on the street, she started using cocaine to serve clients, who paid more for her to accompany them in the use, which quickly became an addiction.

Without desired medical follow-up, she had to stop using hormones, as she had a liver infection. “I became very thin, some even said I had HIV”, she recalls.

The problem made her seek help from her family, with whom she reconciled. That’s when she decided to leave São Paulo in search of a new life in Rio de Janeiro.

Having trouble finding a job in beauty salons, she started looking for a job at beach kiosks. In this movement, she decided to take up an old hobby, volleyball.

That was how she met Breno Cruz, 41, a professor of gastronomy at UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), who introduced her to an embryonic project to reinsert transgender people —who do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth— in the labor market, with a focus on the gastronomy sector. It was TransGarçonne, the university’s extension project.

Six months after the course, Rochelly got her first formal job, in the field of gastronomy. In 2022, she won the third season of the cocktail reality show “Bar Aberto”. And finally, last Monday (26), she became the first trans woman to sign a drinks menu for the Hilton hotel chain, in Rio de Janeiro.

Maria Paula Comaru, 48, director of sales and marketing for Hilton hotels in Rio de Janeiro, says Rochelly is an important figure both in the Brazilian beverage business and in the LGBTQIAPN+ community. “We are honored to present their specially curated drinks menu inspired by celebrated female figures.”

For her, Pride Month is just one of the moments when companies can reinforce the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion.

One of the main names of the Stonewall Uprising, origin of the International LGBTQIA+ Pride Day, celebrated on June 28, the American drag queen and activist Marsha P. Johnson is one of the honorees of Rochelly Rangel on the drinks menu.

Other honorees are Oxum, orixá of fertility and love, and journalist Glória Maria, who died in February of this year.

She says she has also been drug free for five years, is on good terms with her family and is financially independent.

Rochelly was part of the first TransGarçonne class, formed in August 2019. Professor Renato Monteiro, 42, who created the program along with Breno, says that the project was designed to be aimed at the job market, which, according to him, the public university is still far away.

He says that trans people are often hired just to stay behind the scenes in restaurants, in the kitchen and in heavy work, such as cleaning and organizing utensils, equipment and crockery. The idea of ​​TransGarçonne is precisely to give “visibility to these people in spaces of socialization, which is the environment of the lounge of an establishment”, says Monteiro.

A trans man, the professor claims that he went through the transition process when he was already a public servant. The motivation to create the course comes, according to him, from a recognition of his trajectory being a point outside the curve within the community.

“I’m a white man, from the middle class, who managed to study, who did a doctorate and is a public servant, and this is not the profile of most of the community, quite the contrary”, he says.

According to a survey carried out by the TransVida project, from the Pela Vida group, with support from the federal government, only 15% of the 147 trans people interviewed in Rio de Janeiro in 2022 had a formal contract.

According to Antra (National Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals), in the LGBT+ community, transvestites and trans women, especially black and peripheral ones, are the largest unemployed portion, in underemployment and/or in prostitution. Due to violence and family exclusion, as was the case with Rochelly, trans people have high rates of rejection in the formal job market, he says.

Since its creation in 2019, TransGarçonne has qualified 40 people to work as waiters and bartenders, among other functions in the hospitality industry. This Monday (26), the project began its third edition, with 20 new students.

The course lasts two weeks, at the UFRJ campus on Ilha do Governador (north of Rio) and includes classes in hygiene and safety, professional etiquette, cocktail making and bartending. At the end, students will undergo interviews and help in the production of their resumes to be forwarded to employers.

Of the previous groups, 22 people were hired in formal jobs, and others work as freelancers.

One of the project’s main partners is SindRio (Rio de Janeiro Bars and Restaurants Union), which helps monitor employed people, says Danni Camilo, 49, director of the association.

The businesswoman points out that it is necessary to monitor and adapt the partner establishments to receive the contractors. “The employer needs to prepare the environment, it’s not enough just to give the job.”