Should transgender women be allowed to
compete in female beauty pageants?
That's the question at the center of a heated
scandal involving one Canadian pageant
contestant. Jenna Talackova, 23, was born
male but has identified as a female since age
4. She began hormone therapy at 14 and
underwent gender reassignment surgery at
19.
On Friday, Talackova, a Vancouver resident,
was booted from the Miss Universe Canada
competition "because she did not meet the
requirements to compete despite having
stated otherwise on her entry form," the
organization said in a statement. "We do,
however, respect her goals, determination
and wish her the best."
RELATED: Transgender Beauty Queen.
According to The Province newspaper,
Talackova was selected among 65 finalists
for the 2012 competition. She was removed
from the competition despite there being no
mention of rules regarding sex changes, The
Province reports.
"I am very disappointed with the decision
taken by the Miss Universe ... organizers,"
Talackova said in a statement released
Monday. "However, 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."
In a 2010 interview for Thailand's Miss
International Queen, a pageant for
transgendered women, Talackova was
asked whether she regards herself as
transgender or as a woman. "I regard
myself as a woman … with a history," she
said.
'Rules Very Clear'
But the head of the pageant says there are
rules regarding a contestant's gender at
birth. The national director of Miss Universe
Canada says that Talackova indicated on her
registration form that she was born a
female but later admitted that she was born
a male, India Today reports.
"She feels like a real girl and she is a real girl.
She didn't expect people to question it,"
Denis Davila told the publication. "She was
hoping we could put her back in the
competition, but the rules are very clear, and
there's no way we can go back on it."
Reactions to Talackova's story have been
mixed. Detractors maintain that only natural-
born women should be allowed to compete
in traditional women's beauty pageants. But
the ousted beauty queen also has her
supporters – more than 20,000 of them and
counting.
A change.org petition has netted 20,171
signatures in an effort to reverse the
decision to disqualify Talackova from the the
Donald Trump-owned pageant. Talackova is
expected to release a statement this week
after speaking with her lawyer.
In a statement Monday afternoon, the Miss
Universe Organization said: "As with any
competition, the Miss Universe pageant has
rules which apply to all of its franchises
around the world. Such rules include, but
are not limited to citizenship, age, and
marital status requirements. Additionally, the
rules currently state that all contestants must
be naturally born females. After review,
organizers discovered that Jenna Talackova
falsified her application and did not meet
the necessary requirements to compete in
the 2012 Miss Universe Canada pageant."
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