This week, more than 100 females who believe they are “trans men” entered the Miss Italy competition to push back against the pageant’s policies barring biological male “trans women” from competing.
As Townhall covered, this month, the Miss Italy competition’s patron, Patrizia Mirigliani, said in an interview that biological males who believe they are women will not be allowed to compete. Her remarks came shortly after a male won the Miss Netherlands pageant, which Townhall also covered.
These people must be HIGH!!!
— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) July 10, 2023
A BIOLOGICAL male won the Miss Netherlands 2023 competition!!!
Winner (left) vs. the runner-up (right): pic.twitter.com/Oj0OGQNOnk
"Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd," Mirigliani stated in the interview, according to Newsweek. "Since it was born, my competition has foreseen in its regulation the clarification according to which one must be a woman from birth. Probably because, even then, it was foreseen that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women."
Newsweek added in its report that while Mirigliani was "happy" for Rikki Valerie Kolle's win in the Miss Netherlands competition, she emphasized that Italy would not change its rules to allow men to compete. Kolle's win means that he will go on to compete in Miss Universe.
Italy-based LGBT+ activist Federico Barbarossa told NBC News that “he” became angry at Mirigliani’s "transphobic" comments.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, well, I was assigned female at birth, but they would reject me because I look like a boy, and they would consider me as a boy,” Barbarossa said. She then entered the pageant under her “deadname.” Barbarossa later shared a screenshot of the email she received confirming her entry to the competition.
Barbarossa added that Miss Italy organizers “really have to go through every single application,” adding that he hopes the protest will “maybe lead them to think better next time.”
In total, Barbarossa said that over 100 “trans men” have entered the pageant. Reportedly, some were called to selections, which is the next step to finding contestants.
“I like to think I’m a little part of Italy’s progress in this sense,” Barbarossa explained. “They would never think that a trans person might even aspire to win a beauty pageant, because we’re seen as this kind of, like, three-headed monster, and I think a part of it is that so many people have never seen trans women or trans men or trans people in general.”
Barbarossa then claimed that excluding biological males from competitions meant for women results in “transphobia.”
“It kind of adds up to a level where the U.S. is kind of representative right now, where every state is passing anti-trans laws,” she claimed.
Over 20 states in the United States have passed legislation protecting women’s spaces from men. This includes protecting women’s sports teams from male-bodied “transgender” athletes. Last year, Will “Lia” Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania pushed this issue to the forefront.