CNN
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On a frigid December night outside a suburban Chicago church, a group of parents and wide-eyed children line up to see Santa Claus.
He awaits them with the classic St. Nick look: pink, cherubic cheeks, twinkling eyes, a gray beard and a plump belly – squeezed into a red suit with white fur trim – that shakes “like a bowl full of jelly” when he laughs.
But when a thin teenager with ripped jeans, tousled hair and a gray hoodie sits down next to him, it soon becomes clear that this is no ordinary Santa.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Trans Santa,” he says. He looks at the teenager and asks: “Pronouns?”
“They, them,” the teen answers, looking up with surprise.
What follows is not a kid asking for toys or dolls, but a young person asking for help. They tell Santa their Christmas wish is to come out fully to their parents and dress in a way that conforms to their gender identity.
Later, Santa sighs as if he was the one who was handed a gift.
“That definitely was an emotional moment for me,” Levi Truax, the man in the Santa suit, told CNN. Truax lives in Chicago, works at Starbucks and himself transitioned in his late 30s. “That would have made a difference for me when I was a kid. Just having the knowledge to put a name to what I felt as a kid would have been really empowering.”
This scene comes from “Santa Camp,” a moving new documentary film about this push for diversity. The film airs on HBO Max, which like CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Santa Claus has traditionally been portrayed as a jolly, white guy, but Truax represents a push for diversity in the Santa industry that has accelerated in recent years. In some parts of the US, the traditional definition of Santa as a straight White guy who heads out to work while Mrs. Claus stays at home baking cookies just won’t fly anymore.
Just as there’s been a campaign to include more characters of color and LGBTQ characters in comic books and fantasy television series, there’s also been a drive to broaden traditional representations of Santa. These efforts include a Tex-Mex Santa named Pancho Claus, Asian Santas, a “Sensory Santa” for kids with special needs, and a recent ad depicting Santa Claus in a gay relationship.
And, of course, there…
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