Jenna Talackova, 23 year-old Canadian beauty and Miss Universe finalist was disqualified from the pageant after judges realized she was actually a male who underwent gender reassignment surgery.
Her expulsion from the contest came from the standards implemented by the Miss Universe Contest which clearly states that all participants must be naturally born females, which was not Talackova’s case even though she identifies as a woman on her passport and driver’s license. Talackova and her attorney, Gloria Allred, accused this rule of being “blatantly discriminatory.”
Talackova says she is under no legal obligation to claim she is transgender if Canada recognizes her as a female.
Talackova’s talked about how she started taking estrogen early in life and even went as far as cutting off her Adam’s apple.
She said that as a little boy she felt awkward and attracted to “female things” and dealt with name-calling as she started transitioning at the age of 14. She even went through vocal training to sound like a female.
This issue is so hard because of the legitimacy that both sides present. On one hand, the rules were clear and blatant; you can’t enter a contest knowing the rules and get upset for being kicked out for not following them. But it’s clear that the rule is discriminatory.
Donald Trump, who is in charge of the contest, was seen as very controversial during this whole ordeal and said that Talackova should worry about competing in the Canadian contest before worrying about tackling Miss Universe.
The Miss Universe Organization has decided to allow Talackova to enter as long as “she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions.”
Things got distasteful when Allred said that the physical examination of the contest is too much and the same treatment should be applied to Trump to see if he is a man.
TMZ took advantage of the situation and had Trump on the show and he laughed off her comment by saying “she would be really, really impressed.”
Trump still believes that Talackova may have an ulterior motive for joining the contest. The fact that the rule was overwritten means that pageants will include transgender applicants worldwide because “it wouldn’t be fair just to take certain countries.”
It is a great step for this contest to join other institutions, such as The Olympics, NCAA and “America’s Next Top Model,” that have opened their rules to not discriminate against transgender contestants
Nayeli Carillo is a senior journalism major and a contributing writer for the Daily 49er.
