Ann Thomas, Founder of Transgender Talent LLC
Ann Thomas Courtesy of Bob Quillard
In this profile series, Revry is highlighting authentic contributors to the LGBTQ media and entertainment community. Women’s History Month is a time to highlight and commemorate all that women have achieved - past, present, and future. Revry honors their contributions to our history and society and provides recognition and encouragement for a more inclusive future.
Ann Thomas is the founder and owner of Transgender Talent, the most well-known and well-respected management firm for transgender performers in the industry. Since founding Transgender Talent LLC, in 2015, Ann has been a focal point, north star, and important voice for many transgender performers. From all the essential tools these artists need to get started in the business from help to find an agent, get jobs, advise on medical issues, hormone treatments, passports, and more. The company now boasts a client roster of almost 50 and has a talent, voice-over, music, and production division. Ann has been featured in publications from CNN, the OUT 100, The Advocate, and Rolling Stone. Ann’s unwavering commitment to raising transgender voices also includes the field of Medicine. For the last seven years, she has helped developed the Transgender Patient Care Module at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Doctoring Program. She has thus far contributed to the transgender education of approximately 1300 medical students from all over the world, many of whom are now practicing physicians. Transgender Talent is an official sponsor of the Transgender Voices Festival, to be held sometime in the next year, and on which Ann sits on the Steering Committee.
What does Women's History Month mean to you?
Women's History Month means a whole lot to me. When I was growing up, my mother always told me our family was made up of strong women going back for many, many generations. My family came from, among others, 3 people on the Mayflower, so we've been on this continent for just over 400 years. As the settlements and towns grew, my family kept moving west, ending up in Washington Territory in 1875. There were only about 50,000 people in the entire territory - that's about the same as the population of West Seattle today. Statehood came 14 years later. All through that time, women didn't have supermarkets to go to. You had to tend the chickens, milk the cows, sew your own clothes, tend the sick as best you could, and hope to hell you survived childbirth. In spite of the photos of women in long dresses, they rarely wore those, according to my grandmother who was born in 1903. They commonly wore their husband's trousers - the dresses got in the way. Well, at least they said they belonged to their husbands! Being from a pioneer family has given me the strength to carry on in spite of whatever happens. We're survivors! And it was the women that provided strength right along with the men.
Who is someone you look to for inspiration?
I look for inspiration from my grandmothers and my mother. From one grandmother comes my spirituality, and my comfort with questioning everything, through her lessons in critical thinking. From the other, comes endless love and respect for others - it was said she could 'charm the warts off of a frog!' My mom let me be myself, and encouraged me to grow into who I was meant to be!