The owner of the Miss Italy beauty pageant has banned biological male contestants from competing in the women's competition, telling prospective contestants “you must be a woman from birth.”
Patrizia Mirigliani, who owns the pageant that was founded in 1939, spoke on Italian radio station Radio Cusano to clarify her pageant's policy, in the wake of a transgender contestant attracting global attention for winning the Miss Universe Netherlands title.
The Italian businesswoman called out the Miss Universe Netherlands pageant and others decrying them as "absurd" for allowing transgender competitions to win in order to "make the news." She told the radio channel, “Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news, also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd.” She added, “My competition provides in its rules the clarification that you must be a woman from birth.”
The Miss Italia policy comes after worldwide media coverage of a transgender male winning the title of Miss Netherlands sparked global backlash. Rikkie Valerie Kollé won the title last month and faced a media firestorm with the announcement sparking fierce debate. Kollé is set to be the second ever transgender contestant to compete in the prestigious Miss Universe pageant set to be held in El Salvador later this year.
While the Miss Italia pageant has issued their new policy, banning transgender competitors, other beauty pageants have been allowing the participation for several years. In 2018, transgender Angela Ponce won the title of Miss Spain and represented the country during the Miss Universe 2018 competition. This year, in Puerto Rico’s national competition for Miss Puerto Rico, transgender contestant Daniela Arroya Gonzalez is set to compete. If successful, Gonzalez would join the transgender Miss Netherlands winner in El Salvador in December for the Miss Universe contest. And last year, transgender male Brian Nguyen went viral for winning a local Miss America’s pageant, claiming the women's title of Miss Greater Derry.
In 2022 the Miss Universe pageant was purchased by transgender Thai entrepreneur Anne Jakapong Jakrajutatip for $20 million. Announcing the acquisition, Jakrajutatip declared “Trans women are women, full stop” with her words signaling that the pageant would head in a new direction, to encourage transgender participants to compete. At the time of the announcement, NBC News hailed the purchase describing the new owner, who was born male as “the first woman to own the global beauty pageant in its 71-year history.
