Trans Miss Canada Universe Contestant Barred From Competition

23 year old Jenna Talackova from Vancouver was one of the 65 women chosen to compete in the upcoming Miss Canada Universe pageant in Toronto this May.  But she won't be on the stage for this pageant because she's been disqualified for being a transwoman.

Talackova started HRT at age 15, had SRS at age 19, has competed in trans and cis beauty pageants and competed in 2010's Miss International Queen trans pageant in Thailand.


The Donald Trump owned Miss Universe pageant system instituted the anti-transgender rule in a response to an incident that occurred during the 2001 Miss Universe pageant held in Puerto Rico in which Miss France Elodie Gossuin was accused of being a transwoman.  

Gossuin took and passed a chromosome test and was a semifinalist for the Miss Universe title eventually won by Puerto Rico's Denise Quinones.


China's Chen Lili attempted to compete in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant being held in Ecuador that year with the backing of the Miss Universe China committee who announced on February 23 she would be their delegate. Unfortunately they reversed their decision two days later citing the transphobic Trump instituted 'natural born female' rule.


However, the Miss Universe pageant rules have never specifically addressed SRS or plastic surgery issues, so this disqualification reeks of anti-trans bigotry.  All the pageant rules state is that you be a citizen of the country you are representing, be aged 18-27 and not be pregnant.

And what do you mean when you say a contestant must be a 'natural born female' especially when your pageant rules are nebulous about plastic surgery or SRS?   How are you defining that in your rules?

The bouncing of Talackova from the Miss Canada Universe pageant sparked an online petition that has at the time I compiled this post garnered over 31,000 signatures.  She's also not giving up trying to be reinstated as a competitor for the Miss Universe Canada pageant because she correctly sees this as a human rights issue.

"I will look to turn this situation into a positive so that other people in a similar situation are not discriminated against in the future." she said in a statement.

And I and others hope you are successful in doing so.
 

Miss Amazing Philippine Beauties 2011-The Winner

Took me a while, but finally found out who won the 2011 edition of the Miss Amazing Philippine Beauties pageant.   Congrats to Shai Iglesias.   

 

Miss Amazing Philippine Beauties 2011

The finals of the 9th annual Miss Amazing Philippine Beauties trans pageant are happening November 19 (today on our side of the International Date line)  as they determine which of the 25 beauties enyered in this year's contest will walk away with the crown, title and prizes.

The pre-pageant competition was held on November 12 and the finals will be taking place at the Manila Film Center

While the Amazing Philippine Beauties pageant since its inception has only been open to transpinays, the mounting frustrations harbored by transpinays over the Thai-run Miss International Queen pageant and the questionable fairness of it boiled over this year.

Rumors are flying that an international trans pageant based in Manila is about to be inaugurated and that transpinay contestants will boycott the MIQ one in 2012..  

I'll keep you pageant fans posted on those developments and as soon as I discover who won Miss Amazing Philippine Beauties, I'll post the info.

Good luck to all the ladies entered in the 2011 edition of the Miss Amamzing Philippine Beauties competition, and may the best one win.

Is The Desire For White Skin In Thailand Negatively Impacting African Diaspora Transwomen's Chances To Win The MIQ Title?

I wrote about the controversial conclusion of the 2011 edition of the Thailand based Miss International Queen Pageant and wondered aloud about the interesting factoid that no transwoman from the African Diaspora has ever won this event in its history.

Could it be because white skin is considered desirable and beautiful in the Land Of Smiles and other countries in the Asia-Pacific rim and those prejudices for white skin are impacting the chances of darker skin beauties to win an international trans pageant with all Thai judges?  

Skin bleaching and lightening creams are not just an issue in the Caribbean, African nations and the rest of the African Diaspora, they are also an issue in the Asia-Pacific rim as well.    A survey done by marketing company Synovate discovered that 4 out of 10 women in Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan use a skin lightening cream.  

There is also region wide stigma, racism and negativity attached to having dark skin as well.   In Thailand as in other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, the stigma of darker skin is rooted in language.   It's not surprising as a child of the Diaspora to learn that a common Thai insult aimed at someone of lower social standing is "tua dam," or black body.  Along the same lines are "e dam" (black girl) or "dam tap pet" (black like a duck's liver). 

When you have reports of Thai women who in pursuit of that desirable white skin are disfigured because of black market skin lightening products that promise to deliver but ruin skin but lives in the process, it leads you to ponder the possibility that the distaste for darker skin is infecting the all Thai judging panels and negatively impacting the African descended and other dark skin beauties who enter the MIQ pageant.

I'd submit that the troubling pattern of no African Diaspora contestant ever winning the Miss International Queen pageant over its existence is evidence to suggest that it is probably happening.

It's also why I'm not letting this issue go in continuing to call for an international panel of judges for the 2012 and future Miss International Queen pageants.   As the Miss Universe and Miss World ciswomen pageant organizers already know, what you Thais consider beautiful for a woman doesn't have the same currency in the Middle East, the Caribbean, South America, Europe or North America. 

It's past time for the Miss International Queen judging panels, if they are going to continue to claim they are a premier international transgender pageant, to expand their beauty mindset to reflect that just as those cis pageant systems do.

It's not a surprise because of an internationally diverse judging panel, this year's Miss Universe is a statuesque woman from Angola.

It will be interesting to observe what transpires over the next year for the Miss International Queen pageant. Will they continue business as usual in the face of strong rumors that a Manila based international trans pageant may be about to kick off next year and risk getting eclipsed or will they evolve already and institute those international judging pageant that will give African Diaspora and dark skin beauties from other nations a fair chance to win?      

Miss International Queen 2011 Ends In Controversy

Miss International Queen has become the defacto must win international title in the trans pageant world over its seven year history because it was held in Thailand and gained the cachet through years of major international media coverage.

Even I write a post about who wins it every year and this year is no exception. 

But there is discontent brewing this year over the 2011 edition of the Thailand based international trans pageant.

In the Asia-Pacific Rim, there are no two more pageant-loving nations than Thailand and the Philippines.  Both have international reputations for the beauty of their transwomen and also are homes to the world's best known trans revue shows in Tiffany's in Pattaya and the Amazing Philippine Show in Manila.

Both revue shows also sponsor major internationally renowned trans pageants in their respective countries such as the Miss Tiffany's one in Thailand and the upcoming Amazing Philippine Beauties one on November 19.  

Transpinays have been fuming for some time now and charging that the Miss International Queen pageant is rigged in favor of the homestanding Thai girls.  The Thai transwomen who compete in it further charge that it is rigged in favor of the Miss Tiffany's Universe winners or ones who work for the Tiffany's show. 

That sentiment is now beginning to be echoed by transwomen from other parts of the world as well.  I've also noticed over the pageant's history that I've been observing and documenting since 2006 that an African Diaspora trans woman has NEVER won it and there were three entered this year.. 

So when Thai homegirl Sirapassorn 'Sammy' Atthayakorn (who was the 2011 winner of the all-Thai transwomen Miss Tiffany's Universe title) won the 2011 Miss International Queen title over SaHHara, who represented Nigeria (thus continuing the sorry history of the Miss International Queen pageant in never selecting a winner from the African Diaspora) and Margaret, a transpinay who was representing Lebanon, the commentary in the wake of the results exploded in disapproval on the Miss International Queen FB page with even some Thai viewers of the pageant, which was televised live in that nation questioning the judges decision.

And Alisa Phanthusak, as Assistant Managing Director of Tiffany's and by extension the Miss International Queen pageant they sponsor, you have an emerging PR headache and credibility problem in that regard. 

Nobody likes rigged pageants or ones suspected of being rigged, especially when it costs money for people to enter them (the entry fee for MIQ was $400 US).

It also costs money to buy gowns, makeup, outfits for the preliminary events, pay for international air travel, passport if you don't have one, food, transportation and lodging in the host city, put in the time and effort to assemble a talent routine and get hair, nails and whatever other work done to make yourself look flawless in the process. 

If you're going to commit that time, money, sweat equity and energy into becoming a winning pageant contestant, you want to believe after you invested the effort into it that whether you won, placed or lost, you had a fair shot at winning a title.  Right now that's not what contestants are feeling when it comes to the Miss International Queen pageant.

Transpinays are so pissed right now they are not only considering a boycott of next year's event, they are seriously contemplating starting a rival Manila based international trans pageant with the international judging panel I've suggested.   

It didn't help there were charges that some comments critical of the decision got mysteriously chopped off the MIQ Facebook page.  For a moment I went off on that page because I presumed my comment calling for an international panel of judges was one of those deleted as well but I found it when I scrolled down on the page.

I said this on the MIQ FB page and I will repeat it   If the Miss International Queen Pageant is going to claim it's an international trans pageant and wants to have ANY international credibility in the trans pageant world as a fair pageant, from this point forward it is imperative that an international panel of judges be assembled to determine the winner and make sure that any Thai judges that are part of the panel have no ties to Tiffany's show or are severely limited.

If they don't handle that credibility problem they have in an expeditious manner, they may find themselves in the Land of Smiles being speedily eclipsed by international trans pageants who do value fairness and a clean competition without questionable ties to the sponsor of the event or home nation bias.