THE FIRST-EVER transgender
contestant to compete in the Miss Universe Canada pageant strutted the runway
on May 19, making it to the penultimate round before losing her bid to win the
title.
Jenna Talackova, 23,
competed with 61 contestants and was among the final 12 contestants before
failing to make the final five in the glitzy pageant.
Sahar Biniaz, 26, claimed
the crown and advances to the international Miss Universe competition in
December.
Talackova, who was one of
four contestants named Miss Congeniality, was born a male and underwent a sex
change four years ago. The Vancouver, British Columbia, native was initially
denied entry to Canada's pageant because she was not born female. Donald Trump,
who runs the Miss Universe Organization, subsequently overruled that decision
last month.
The 6-foot-1 (1.8-meter-1
centimeter) blond beauty, who towered over her fellow contenders while
competing in the bikini and formal wear contests, garnered most of the
attention Saturday night, soliciting loud cheering and howls each time she
appeared on stage.
Talackova's involvement in
the pageant has drawn international attention since being denied entry and
hiring high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred to represent her in her battle to be
readmitted.
The rules of the contest run
by Trump's New York City-based organization say entrants must be
"naturally born" females. But shortly after Talackova announced a
news conference in Los Angeles with Allred, the Miss Universe Organization said
in a statement on its Canada website that Talackova can compete "provided
she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the
standards established by other international competitions."
Miss Universe organizers
have not elaborated on the statement.
Allred said during
Saturday's pageant that Talackova shouldn't feel too disappointed.
"She's still a winner
as far as I'm concerned," Allred said during an intermission. "She
won an 'herstoric' civil rights victory and that I think is frankly more
important than anything, any victory she would win, even representing Miss
Canada."
Talackova is the child of a
Czechoslovakian father and aboriginal Canadian mother. She has said that she
knew early on she was in the wrong body. Her change of gender was hardly a
secret before the event because she had competed in the 2010 Tiffany Miss
International Queen Competition for transgendered and transsexual women in
Pattaya, Thailand. In a video interview for that pageant, she said she had
lived her life as a female since age 4, began hormone therapy at 14 and changed
her sex at 19.
The controversy surrounding
her participating in Miss Universe Canada erupted this spring after a blogger
recognized her from the transsexual beauty contest in Thailand and posted about
it.
Miss Universe publicity
director Brenda Mendoza has said transgender competitors are now welcome at all
of its pageants around the world.
But she says it's being left
to the individual franchises to determine if the recent policy change is
carried out. (AP)
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