Interview with Barbara Herr

Barbara Herr is a transgender woman, actress, cabaret artist, showgirl and activist whose remarkable life spans more than five decades of LGBTQ+ performance history. Born Robert Hernández in the Bronx, New York, in 1955 to Puerto Rican and Cuban immigrant parents, she grew up between New York and Puerto Rico, an experience that would shape both her identity and her extraordinary artistic career. Barbara moved to Puerto Rico as a teenager and began performing in 1973 under the name Bobby Herr. During the 1970s and 1980s, she became part of the island's vibrant world of drag, cabaret and nightclub entertainment, performing in venues such as Bachelor in Santurce and Stars in Condado. She also worked in theatre and television and toured with a revue connected with the legendary Héctor Del San Juand and Ed Vachan. Later, she toured the Caribbean as a solo artist, headlining her own show during hotel residencies in the Dominican Republic. Two important figures helped shape her artistic life. Antonio Pantojas, one of Puerto Rico's most celebrated entertainers, became her mentor, teacher and close friend, while the legendary Lady Catiria became an important artistic influence. Through them and many other performers of her generation, Barbara became part of a rich Puerto Rican and Nuyorican tradition of transgender and drag performance that has only recently begun to receive the historical recognition it deserves.

Interview with Martina Sobková

When I first spoke with Martina Sobková, I talked to a woman who was redefining what beauty, ambition, and femininity could look like. At 36, she had already made history as the first transgender woman from the Czech Republic to compete at Miss Trans Star International in São Paulo, where she earned the title of Miss Evolution. But even then, it was clear that Martina’s journey was only beginning. Now, she has stepped onto another, even bigger stage: Miss International Queen 2025, one of the most prestigious and internationally recognized pageants for transgender women. Getting there required far more than a beautiful gown, a polished catwalk, and a sash. Martina had to prepare a national costume and talent, balance intense preparation with her career in finance, and somehow keep going even when she was physically exhausted. What makes this second chapter particularly interesting, however, is that Martina does not look back on Miss International Queen simply as a glamorous achievement. Beneath the glitter, she discovered something much more personal. She learned how easily the pursuit of perfection can make us lose sight of ourselves, and how important it is to remember that our lives cannot be reduced to one competition, one appearance, or one moment on stage.

Interview with Catherine Burton

 

Catherine “Cat” Burton has spent most of her life navigating worlds in which she was never expected to belong. Born into an aviation family, she began flying professionally in 1972, at a time when there were no female professional pilots in the United Kingdom. What followed was an extraordinary career spanning some 45 years, during which she flew everything from Vickers Viscounts to Boeing 747s and eventually became a long-haul captain with British Airways. Yet while aviation gave Cat a life she loved, it also provided a remarkably effective place to hide a part of herself that she had not yet fully understood.

 

Cat eventually came out as transgender in her late fifties and returned to the flight deck as herself, supported by British Airways and, as she discovered, by many of the colleagues she had feared might reject her. Her story is not simply about transition or aviation. It is about identity, courage, humour and the extraordinary freedom that comes from finally stopping the exhausting work of pretending to be someone else. It is also a story about what happens when a workplace chooses not merely to tolerate difference, but to recognise the value of the person standing in front of them. Cat went on to become a diversity champion, an advocate for women and minorities in aviation and, after retiring from British Airways, a flying instructor who clearly has no intention whatsoever of slowing down. As she puts it rather succinctly, there will be “plenty of time for that when I’m dead.”