100 Transgender Men Have Applied For The Miss Italy Beauty Pageant

A controversial comment from the organiser of a national beauty contest has provoked a massive protest from members of the transgender community.

To make their point, more than 100 transgender men, originally assigned female gender at birth but identifying and living as males, have applied as entrants in the Miss Italy beauty contest, according to BNN, July 31.

The controversy began after the organizer of the contest, Patrizia Mirigliani, said in an interview: ‘Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by … using strategies that in my opinion are a bit absurd.’

This was a reference to the recent trend in which other countries have allowed transgender individuals to participate in the competition.

Mirigliani, continued: ‘Since it was founded, my contest has stipulated in its regulation (that contestants)… must be a woman from birth.’

Earlier this year the Miss Netherlands beauty pageant winner was announced as Rikkie Valerie Kollé, a Dutch – Indonesian transgender model, who will compete at the Miss Universe 2023 contest.

The comments have sparked a backlash from a trans activist, who has organized the protest. He has claimed that beauty pageants exclude transgender women due to a lack of understanding and not fully understanding what being transgender means.

His argument is that excluding transgender women from female beauty competitions engenders the idea that ‘trans women are not women,’ Something which is feared that will further perpetuate transphobia and have a detrimental effect on broader social issues.

The recent promotion of inclusivity has seen more and more beauty pageants throw the contest open to include transgender women. The first transgender woman to compete in the Miss Universe pageant was Angela Ponce in 2018, and in 2021, Kataluna Enriquez became the first transgender woman to compete in Miss USA.

Other countries, however, such as Mexico and Thailand, still hold separate beauty pageants for trans women.

The aim of the protest is that the organizers of Miss Italy will relax the rules and allow transgender women to compete in future events, as well as provoke further discussion about their inclusion in society