The popular Italian beauty pageant, Miss Italy, has decided not to allow transgender individuals to participate in their competition. This announcement was made by Patrizia Mirigliani, the pageant’s official patron, during a radio interview. She argued that beauty pageants that include transgender competitors are primarily seeking media attention.
Mirigliani said:
“Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd. Miss Italia, on the other hand, will not jump on the glittery bandwagon of trans activism.”
“Since it was born, my competition has foreseen in its regulation the clarification according to which one must be a woman from birth. Probably because, even then, it was foreseen that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women,”
This decision follows closely after the crowning of the first transgender Miss Netherlands, Rikkie Valeri Kole, who has been targeted with hateful comments on social media. Interestingly, the Miss Universe pageant, which Kole will participate in, is owned by a transgender businesswoman. Last year, a U.S. appeals court upheld the right of the Miss United States of America pageant to exclude transgender contestants, while Miss USA included its first transgender entrant from Nevada in 2021.
