Portland woman sues Miss USA over transgender ban. She’s not the first to fight rule
A Portland, Oregon woman has sued the Miss United States Of America Pageant for barring transgender women from competing.
Anita Green, 29, said she applied to participate in a Miss Oregon pageant but her application was rejected because Miss USA requires that participants be “natural born female,” according to the Miss USA website. Green previously competed in the Miss Montana USA pageant and holds the title of 2019 Miss Earth Elite Oregon.
Miss USA director Tanice Smith reportedly offered to help Green find another pageant, but that she wouldn’t be allowed to compete in Miss USA because they “do not anticipate the rules changing,” according to Willamette Week.
Green filed a gender-identity discrimination lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Oregon on Dec. 17.
“This policy, intentionally designed to exclude the specific class to which plaintiff belongs – transgender females – is discriminatory because it denied plaintiff the full and equal advantages and privileges of defendant’s services in violation of Oregon’s public accommodations law,’’ the lawsuit said.
“I felt as though I was being invalidated,” Green told Willamette Week. “I felt as though the organization was saying I am not a woman and I’m not woman enough.”
Miss Universe previously lifted the ban on transgender contestants in 2012 after Jenna Talackova, a transgender woman from Canada, threatened to sue the organization and hired lawyer Gloria Allred, according to CNN.
Miss Universe announced that Talackova could compete if “she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions,” CNN reported.
President Trump owned the Miss Universe Organization for nearly two decades before he sold it in 2015, according to the NY Times.
“I think Jenna should focus on running up in Canada and seeing how she does in Canada and then, if she does well, she has a chance to become what many, many young women all over the world want to be and that’s Miss Universe,” Trump told “Good Morning America” at the time. “That should be her focus.”
Talackova stopped short of winning the crown at the Miss Universe Canada pageant, but finished in the top 12 semi-finalists, according to CNN.
Ángela Ponce, who was Miss Spain 2018, became the first transgender woman to compete in the Miss Universe pageant, according to The Washington Post. She didn’t end up wining the title, but some saw her participation as a milestone.
“This is for you, for those who have no visibility, no voice, because we all deserve a world of respect, inclusion and freedom,” Ponce wrote on Instagram. “And today I am here, proudly representing my nation, all women and human rights.”