Trans Men Enter Miss Italy Beauty Pageant To Protest Trans Women Ban

Over 100 trans men applied to enter the Miss Italy pageant following an announcement by the organisers that they have banned trans women from competing, using a “women from birth” rule to decide an individual’s eligibility. 

Miss Italy’s organiser, Patrizia Mirigliani, announced the news on Radio Cusano earlier this month. Miss Italy’s current regulations prevent the participation of trans women, and Mirigliani stated that she has no intention of revising these rules to align with the “glamorous trend of trans activism.”

Mirigliani expressed her views on recent beauty contests, stating that some had been using “absurd” strategies, referring to the recent victory of trans woman Rikkie Valerie Kollé in the Miss Netherlands pageant. 

“Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd,” Mirigliani said. 

Rikkie Valerie Kollé is the first trans woman to win the competition and will be the second trans woman to compete in the Miss Universe competition.

According to a report by the Italian newspaper Il Primato Nazionale, Mirigliani said: “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.”

Trans Men Protest Trans-Exclusionary Rule 

As a response to the exclusionary policy, trans men across Italy started enrolling in the contest, protesting the ‘women in birth’ rule. 

Among them was trans activist Federico Barbarossa, who told Italian newspaper La Repubblica, “When I learned about the nonsensical regulation, I felt compelled to take action. Despite being assigned female at birth, I have always identified as male.”

The campaign was launched by Barbarossa, who explained to La Repubblica that his goal was to “trigger, through a joke, a reflection on the absurdity of some logics out of time and out of the world”.

“Someone imagines us as three-headed monsters who could never aspire to win a beauty contest because even the media representation often brings forward narratives that fetishize our bodies. With this campaign, we are giving visibility to the truth of trans people”, Barbarossa said. 

Trans Men Win Praise

After Barbarossa’s initiative, other trans men in Italy followed suit, including trans activist Elia Bonci. In a separate interview with La Repubblica, Bonci expressed his decision to be courageous and use his deadname to sign up for Miss Italy because he felt it was important to fight for trans women’s rights. 

“Miss Italy is not just a beauty contest, but it is part of the country’s cultural history. And excluding trans women automatically means excluding them from history, pretending they don’t exist”, he said. 

The protest by trans men has been commended by Italian LGBTQI activists, with one Twitter user declaring that this act is a “real political act of protest and visibility, not taken for granted or due, which hits the mark with respect to the statements of Mirigliani”. 

The praise for trans men challenging the “women in birth rule” continued internationally, with a Twitter user from Germany writing, “This is probably the best and most petty form of protest ever, I love it! Many thanks from Germany. We stand united, not only as Europeans but also as brothers, sisters, and siblings across the world. Be loud. Be proud. And stay safe”.