The Miss Italy beauty pageant recently declared that transgender individuals are prohibited from participating in the competition, stating that all contestants must be “women from birth.”
The official patron of Miss Italy, Patrizia Mirigliani said in an interview with Radio Cusano that she personally finds the participation of transgender activists in beauty pageants to be “a bit absurd,” and not in line with the competition's values.
The pageant would not be joining the "glittery bandwagon of trans activism,” she said. “Lately, beauty pageants have been trying to make headlines by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd,” she told a local news outlet .
“Ever since I was born, my contest has included in its regulations the specification that one must be a woman from birth,” added Mirigliani, who has been involved with Miss Italy since the 1980s.
"Probably because, even then, it was expected that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women," she added.
She added that women with tattoos, piercings and extensions were allowed to take part in Miss Italy, but added 'excesses' were not good.
Miss Italy enforces stringent criteria for its contestants. Back in 2012, the pageant implemented a rule prohibiting any participant who had undergone plastic surgery from competing.
Mirigliani, on the other hand, expressed her support for Miss Netherlands' decision to include transgender women in their competition.
This decision was made shortly after the 22-year-old Rikkie Valerie Kolle, a transgender model, won the Miss Netherlands title in 2023. Earlier this month, she made history by becoming the first transgender woman to win the title of Miss Netherlands. She will get to represent the Netherlands at the 72nd Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador.
“Making my community proud and showing it can be done,” she wrote on Instagram after being declared the winner of the title.
However, Kolle revealed that her victory was marred by instances of hate speech directed towards her after the competition. “I thought we were really accepting...in the Netherlands, but the hate comments show the other side of our society. I hope that’s a wake-up call,” she said.