Miss International Queen 2012 Is....

After Nigeria's Sahhara got screwed for the 2011 title and it exposed a problematic pattern of dark skinned women and African descended ones not being chosen as the winners for the pageant along with transpinays, in protest yours truly was going to eschew writing a post about the 2012 Miss International Queen contest as had been my blog's tradition.

The controversy over the questionable win of Thailand's Sirapassorn 'Sammy' Atthayakorn over 1st runner up Sahhara and 2nd runner up Margaret (another transpinay representing Lebanon) sparked so much online drama that the Amazing Philippine Beauties pageant organizers considered starting a rival international trans pageant in Manila in the wake of the kerfluffle and transpinays were prepping a boycott of Miss International Queen event..

But when 20 year old Kevin Balot of the Philippines became the first transpinay to win the Miss International Queen title in the nearly decade long history of the event on November 2, had to write something about the groundbreaking win that my transpinay sisters had been anxiously waiting for.  Jessika Simoes of Brazil was 1st runner up fo this year's edition of the Pattaya based event while Thailand's Panvilas Mongkol was 2nd runner up.

What's going to be interesting to observe is whether the Miss International Queen pageant continues to draw contestants in light of the fact the Miss Universe pageant system is opening its doors to transwomen in 2013 and other nations such as Brazil are starting their own national trans pageant events like the one that have existed in the States, Thailand and the Philippines. .

Congratulations Kevin for winning Miss International Queen 2012!

Happy 10th Anniversary STRAP!

The Society of Transsexual Women of The Philippines and I have in common wishing to see trans people in our nations and around the world gain human rights coverage and respect.  

I wanted to make sure I gave STRAP a well deserved shoutout on the occasion of its tenth anniversary year and didn't want to wait until December to write this post

STRAP is one of the premier trans rights organizations in the world and it has grown exponentially since its December 2002 founding by four transpinays, Sass Rogando Sasot, Dee Mendoza, J.A. and Veronica Deposoy in Manila.

It is now ably run by its current chairwoman Naomi Fontanos and her leadership team and has expanded its reach from being a Manila-centric organization to one which is gradually spreading across the Philippines educating and empowering people along the way on a variety of issues, making allies and working in partnership with other organizations in the Philippines and beyond.  

In addition to being well respected in international human rights circles and the Asia-Pacific Rim, it is also forging links with local transpinoy organizations to better coordinate their drive for trans human rights legislation that benefits all transpeople in their homeland.

Happy 10th birthday STRAP and may you have many more.
.

'Queens Of New York' Documentary

Here's another interesting documentary by Kara David that focuses on the transpinays living in New York.

Happy Birthday Sass*!

It actually happened yesterday on her side of the International Date Line, but today is her birthday on my side of it.   

I'm going to take a moment to wish my transpinay sister Sass Rogando Sasot a very happy birthday!   She's the founder of the now 9 year old STRAP, a highly respected international trans leader in the Philippines and abroad and one of the people the TransGriot looks up to for inspiration.

Hope your birthday was a peaceful, blessed and low stress one and may you have many more!.

Miguel/Michelle

This was an interesting 1998 film I stumbled across on YouTube by Gil Portes about a Filipino boy who leaves home after high school graduation to study in the United States.   After seven years she comes back after seven years as a transpinay and declares she is going to stay until her family accepts her..

Of course there is drama.  Mom is embarrassed, dad is angry and michelle's best friend Julio, who he knows is gay, suddenly decides he is going to get married.

Check out the uploaded snippets of the film.

Miss Amazing Philippine Beauties 2010

While we're chowing down on the rest of our turkey, on the other side of the International Date Line it's Friday, and that means the finals of the eighth annual Miss Amazing Philippine Beauties Pageant will be taking place at the Manila Film Center tonight..

This pageant takes place in another nation that takes its pageantry seriously and like the Miss Tiffany Universe pageant is limited to local transwomen only.    It rivals only the Thai ones in terms of the beauty, intelligence and talent of the transpinays who take part in it, and in addition to being a way for the Amazing Philippine Show to find talent for its cabaret production, it has been embraced by STRAP, the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines as well.

2009 queen Bem Bem May Razada will be crowning her successor from the 25 transpinay contestants who started on the journey to become this year's  Miss Amazing Philippine Beauty.

Who is going to be the winner?   As soon as I find out, I'll let y'all know.