Transgender Woman Wins Female Beauty Pageant In Nevada — Now Headed For Miss USA
A transgender person clinched the Miss Nevada pageant title and is now headed for Miss USA becoming the first trans contestant to compete for the title.
Reports said Kataluna Enriquez, a biological male with Asian descent, has made history for becoming the first transgender contestant to compete for the Miss USA crown after beating 21 female contestants for Miss Nevada USA.
The Miss USA pageant is the biggest preliminary competition which eventually sends the representative to the Miss Universe pageant — competing with women contestants from around the world. The pageant this year will be held on November 29.
Enriquez, 27 years old, was crowned on Sunday. KVVU-TV reported that Enriquez wore a homemade rainbow-colored gown in the competition in celebration of Pride Month and to “honor all of those who don’t get a chance to spread their colors.”
The outlet noted that with a transgender winning the title, Enriquez is “redefining what it means to be a woman and what it means to be beautiful.”
Enriquez, a model by profession and a native of California, echoed her advocacy of raising “awareness of the transgender community” as she moves vie for the Miss USA title.
“I’ve learned to love myself, learned the beauty that’s inside me, learned to use my voice and the power that I have,” Enriquez said. “You are capable of anything as long as you believe in yourself.”
When she won Miss Silver State USA in March, Enriquez called the experience a celebration glorifying womanhood.
“Miss Silver State was a great experience … to me it was honestly a celebration of womanhood and diversity and this celebration of being your true self,” she said then.
Miss USA and Miss Universe — run by the Miss Universe Organization — were once owned by former President Donald Trump before he sold it to WME/IMG in 2015. Both pageants are hailed as two of the most coveted crowns in the pageant scene.
Upon winning the major beauty title, Enriquez said: “One thing that is important for me is inclusivity, diversity, and representation. It’s something I did not have growing up and is still lacking in today’s world.”
“Today I am a proud transgender woman of color. Personally, I’ve learned that my differences do not make me less than, it makes me more than.”
While transgender women have been allowed to compete in Miss Universe pageants since 2013, not many have openly stepped forward to participate.
But as more and more biological males have entered beauty pageants, organizers are often met with backlash for any slight move to deny them of participating in such competitions.
Miss Spain 2018 Angela Ponce became the only openly trans woman to ever compete at Miss Universe — and was at one point the favorite to win the Miss Universe.
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