Transsexual — Beauty Queens 46

And sometimes, she thought, smiling as she wiped a smudge of lipstick from her thumb, you don’t need a crown to feel like a queen. You just need the courage to take the stage.

For most of the 20th century, the idea of a transsexual woman competing in mainstream pageants like Miss USA or Miss America was unthinkable. Rules explicitly stated that contestants must be "natural-born females." This language, rooted in transphobic gatekeeping, remained in place for decades. transsexual beauty queens 46