Miss Universe Canada officials have banned 23-year-old transsexual Jenna Talackova from participating in the pageant finals to be held in Toronto in May, 2012, because she was born a boy.
Denis Davila, national director of Miss Universe Canada, asserts that every contestant must be a “naturally born female.” Critics of the decision claim that the rules do not specifically address sex change or plastic surgery.
Jenna Talackova is calling it a human rights issue. She says that she knew she was a girl by age four, started hormone therapy at fourteen, and had sex reassignment surgery at nineteen. She’s previously competed in both transsexual and women’s beauty pageants. “All I can say is that they disqualified me because I’m not ‘natural born, that doesn’t make sense because since I was conscious, I always felt this way.”
So far, over twenty-one thousand people have signed a petition demanding she be allowed to compete.
Recent Comments