US beauty pageant can exclude transgender contestants, appeals court in Oregon rules
A U.S. beauty pageant in Oregon does not have to include transgender contestants, a federal appeals court ruled.
Forcing the Miss United States of America pageant to include openly trans competitors would interfere with the message the organization wants to send, and would violate First Amendment free speech rights, NPR reported.
The complaint was first filed by Anita Green, who said the pageant’s eligibility rules violate Oregon’s anti-discrimination laws when it barred her from competing in 2019 because the pageant did not consider her to be a “natural born female,” The Associated Press reported.
Green argued that violated the state law that makes it illegal to deny public accommodations to people because of their sex or gender identity, AP reported.
A summary of the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, states that “it is commonly understood that beauty pageants are generally designed to express the ‘ideal vision of American womanhood.”
It went on to say that the First Amendment “affords the Pageant the ability to voice this message and to enforce its ‘natural born female’ rule.”
Judge Susan P. Graber dissented, according to the ruling. She argued the majority skipped important steps when it decided whether the First Amendment applied, and should have first considered whether the Oregon state law applied to the case, which could have resolved the lawsuit before the judges had to consider the First Amendment in the first place.
Green transitioned after she came out as trans when she was 17, her lawsuit says. She began competing in female beauty pageants, including Miss Montana USA, Miss Earth pageants in Oregon and Nevada and Ms. World Universal.
Last year, after a lower court ruling sided with the pageant, Green said she was disappointed, but would continue educating about discrimination against transgender people within the pageant circuit and advocating for positive change, AP reported.
“I believe United States of America Miss is on the wrong side of history for choosing to actively discriminate against transgender people, but the road to creating meaningful change has always been a long and bumpy one,” she said at the time. “Transgender women are women. My message has always been consistent and my message is this: every person has beauty.”
The topic of transgender women competing in beauty pageants has come up recently, after Thai media tycoon and transgender rights advocate Anne Jakkaphong Jakrajutatip bought the Miss Universe organization for $20 million.
Her company, JKN Global Group PCL, will now host the international beauty pageant, CNN reported.
Jakrajutatip is perhaps better known for her role in Thai versions of reality shows, like “Project Runway,” the outlet reported.
The Miss Universe Organization lifted its ban on transgender contestants in 2012 after a Canadian competitor threatened legal action when told she would be disqualified over her transgender status, the outlet reported.
