Miss Italy beauty pageant bans transgender women from competing

The organisers of Miss Italy have banned transgender people from competing in the beauty pageant. “Since it was born, my competition has foreseen in its regulation the clarification according to which one must be a woman from birth,” Miss Italy Official Patron Patrizia Mirigliani said during an interview with a local outlet and reported by Newsweek, according to Fox News. “Probably because, even then, it was foreseen that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women,” she added.

Evie Magazine reported that Mirigliani criticized efforts from other competitions to create inclusivity as “a bit absurd” and merely attempts to “make the news.” She also claimed the rules for the competition always specified that entrants must be a woman from birth. The news comes days after Rikkie Valerie Kollé created history by becoming the first-ever transgender woman to win Miss Netherlands. The Miss Italy competition has regularly made updates to maintain strict standards on entry, with a major update in 2012 to ban any contestant who had undergone plastic surgery, The Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time