TORONTO — A civil rights breakthrough at Miss Universe Canada may not be universal.
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| Transgendered contestant Jenna Talackova takes part in Miss Universe Canada competition in Toronto, May 17, 2012. A Miss Universe publicity director says it’s too soon to say how the Canadian precedent will play out at other pageants around the world. |
Miss Universe publicity director Brenda Mendoza says transgender competitors are welcome at all of its pageants around the world.
But she says it’s being left to the individual franchises to determine if the recent policy change is carried out.
Vancouver’s Jenna Talackova spurred the change with her fight to compete at Miss Universe Canada.
She’s the first transgender competitor to seek the Miss Universe Canada crown. The winner will be announced tonight in Toronto.
Jenna Talackova
The winner advances to the international Miss Universe competition in December. The host city has yet to be announced.
Talackova’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, says the Miss Universe Organization has not been explicit enough in its position to permit transgender contenders.
She is calling on pageant owner Donald Trump to take a clear stand against discrimination, no matter where it takes place.
“We would like Donald Trump to be the leader in this civil rights battle and say that even if there are no laws protecting against discrimination we — the Miss Universe Organization — we are going to lead the way and say that it is wrong to discriminate,” says Allred, who flew to Toronto from Los Angeles to support Talackova at the pageant.
Mendoza says it’s too soon to say how the Canadian precedent will play out at other pageants, and how Miss Universe would respond if a transgender hopeful was excluded.
“We’re still educating our global franchisees on this. … this is all so new that we’re still updating them and briefing them and getting feedback from them,” Mendoza said Friday from Las Vegas, where she was preparing for the June 3 Miss USA competition.
In the meantime, she said the Miss Universe Organization is “leaving it up to each franchise to determine how they want to handle it.”
“You look at a country like Egypt which is very conservative — and we do have a Miss Egypt — and it becomes a much bigger cultural issue for them,” Mendoza said.
“I don’t know what the status is in that country and what they’re going to be doing.”
Allred praised the pageant’s Canadian arm for leading the way.
“Canada is the gold standard as far as I am concerned.”
The 23-year-old Talackova was born male but had a sex change operation four years ago. She was initially denied entry to Canada’s pageant because she was not a natural-born female. Trump subsequently overruled that decision.
Since then, Talackova has drawn most of the spotlight in the 62-delegate race.
But Allred says she doesn’t think the publicity has helped Talackova’s chances, noting the leggy blond walked away empty-handed when five awards were handed out in a preliminary round Thursday.
“Had she never been disqualified by the pageant then the issue of her gender identity would never have been raised and she would have just been judged as the beautiful woman that she is. But now it may be that certain people are taking into account that issue and whether she should or should not be in the pageant,” she says.
A panel of 15 judges including celebrity designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan, actress Kristin Booth and singer Kreesha Turner will pick the winner.
Mendoza says she has not heard of any other transgender pageant hopefuls seeking titles at other races.
“Our national directors on a global level have been made aware of this policy change, but we haven’t heard that they have gotten people coming forward yet,” she said.
“You’d think it’d be a flood of countries coming in, but we just haven’t (had that).”
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