More than 100 transgender men have entered the Miss Italy pageant this week, according to pageant organizers.
Miss Italy Pageant Under Protest
After an organizer of the Miss Italy beauty pageant declared that men who declared themselves as women could not enter the contest but only ‘women from birth.’
This caused over a hundred trans men to boycott the competition by entering themselves.
Miss Italy’s organizer, Patrizia Mirigliani, said earlier this month that she would not update the beauty pageants entry regulations, which exclude trans ‘women.’
Mirigliani also stated that she had no plans to jump on board the ‘glittery bandwagon of trans activism.’
Transgender rights activist Federico Barbarossa, residing in Bari, Southern Italy, was angered and amused by these comments. In response, the biological female entered the pageant using a former name to protest in solidarity with ‘trans women.’
Following Barbarossa’s registration confirmation, the local LGBTQ nonprofit group he’s associated with, Mixed LGBTQIA+, encouraged other trans to do the same.
The campaign quickly went viral online, with Barbarossa estimating that more than 100 men have now joined the pageant. Barbarossa noted that some have advanced to the selection stage, the next step in the contest.
Barbarossa hopes this protest will prompt the Miss Italy organizers to rethink their stance in the future. Mirigliani and the Miss Italy organizers have yet to comment on the situation.
Angela Ponce made history in 2018 by becoming the first ‘trans woman’ (aka biological male) to participate in the Miss Universe pageant. Kataluna Enriquez continued this trend in 2021 by competing in the Miss USA pageant after winning Miss Nevada. A few countries, like Mexico and Thailand, have held separate beauty pageants for ‘trans women.’
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Perverts… nuff said!