She wants to be a beauty queen, but she was born a boy VIDEO
By AFP, News Wires, YouTube - 27 March 2012 - 12:41
Miss Universe Canada bans trans-gender finalist
A Miss Universe Canada finalist has been sumarily disqualified from the competition for being transgendered - born a man, she's since become a woman.
Jenna Talackova from Vancouver, British Columbia, who was born a male, said she knew since she was about 4 that she was meant to be a woman.
The national director of Miss Universe Canada, Denis Davila, dismissed Talackova’s accusations that she was a victim of discrimination.
"We have to have the facts straight. There is no discrimination here at all," Davila told CTV News. "You can look at it the way she wants to look at it ... but we all have to follow the same rules."
Miss Universe Canada, which is owned by Donald Trump and feeds its winner into the Miss Universe pageant, selected Talackova to be one of its 65 finalists for the 2012 competition, which will see its crown awarded May 19 in Toronto.
Eligibility requirements for various feeders into the Miss Universe system indicate that a contestant must be female and never have been married or pregnant.
AFP reports that more than 28,000 supporters have signed an online petition demanding her reinstatement.
“This is discriminatory, unjust, and quite frankly disgusting,” said Oscar Dimant of Brooklyn, New York, listed as the author of the online petition at change.org.
“She is a woman and deserves to be treated as any other woman would be.”
Talackova, who was selected among some 65 finalists for the 2012 competition, told Canada’s CTV: “I will look to turn this situation into a positive so that other people in a similar situation are not discriminated against in the future”.
Despite being born with male genitals, Talackova said in a previous interview that she knew she was a woman from a young age, began hormone therapy at 14, and had surgery to change her gender when she was 19. She is now 23.
She wants to be a beauty queen, but she was born a boy VIDEO
Miss Universe Canada bans trans-gender finalist
A Miss Universe Canada finalist has been sumarily disqualified from the competition for being transgendered - born a man, she's since become a woman.
Jenna Talackova from Vancouver, British Columbia, who was born a male, said she knew since she was about 4 that she was meant to be a woman.
The national director of Miss Universe Canada, Denis Davila, dismissed Talackova’s accusations that she was a victim of discrimination.
"We have to have the facts straight. There is no discrimination here at all," Davila told CTV News. "You can look at it the way she wants to look at it ... but we all have to follow the same rules."
Miss Universe Canada, which is owned by Donald Trump and feeds its winner into the Miss Universe pageant, selected Talackova to be one of its 65 finalists for the 2012 competition, which will see its crown awarded May 19 in Toronto.
Eligibility requirements for various feeders into the Miss Universe system indicate that a contestant must be female and never have been married or pregnant.
AFP reports that more than 28,000 supporters have signed an online petition demanding her reinstatement.
“This is discriminatory, unjust, and quite frankly disgusting,” said Oscar Dimant of Brooklyn, New York, listed as the author of the online petition at change.org.
“She is a woman and deserves to be treated as any other woman would be.”
Talackova, who was selected among some 65 finalists for the 2012 competition, told Canada’s CTV: “I will look to turn this situation into a positive so that other people in a similar situation are not discriminated against in the future”.
Despite being born with male genitals, Talackova said in a previous interview that she knew she was a woman from a young age, began hormone therapy at 14, and had surgery to change her gender when she was 19. She is now 23.
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