Miss Universe Australia 2026 Says Trans Women Should Be Banned From Women’s Sport

28-year-old Brisbane radiographer Caity Worthington, who won Miss Universe Australia on Wednesday 25 August, has made headlines for her response to a “horror question in the pageant world” relating to trans women competing in women’s sport. 

The question, which News24 host Rita Panahi has described as “deeply political”, “polarising”, and “fraught” was presented to Worthington on the pageant stage as follows:

“Transgender women competing across a range of traditional women’s sports is making headlines around the world. Do you believe banning biological males from women’s sport is common sense or discrimination, and why?”

Worthington, who would later take home the Miss Universe Australia title in part due to her answer, replied: “That is a very good question. Look, coming from a medical background, I’m sure we can all agree, and this is definitely my view, is that human biology does not lie.”

Worthington went on to add that she believes everyone deserves a chance to compete on a “fair playing field”, and would love to see a future in which transgender people have their own sport. In the absence of this alternative reality, Worthington’s position was that, yes, transgender women should be banned from women’s sports.

Caity Worthington Discusses Backlash From “Offended” Activists

Appearing on News24 after her win, Worthington was asked by Panahi if she was “expecting a backlash from activists who are going to look for something to be offended by?”

“It was definitely a curly question,” Worthington began, “and we could have just asked me about world peace and I would’ve been happier.

“But look I think it’s really probably quite important and it’s very current and it’s important we have the conversation because at the end of the day we’re all entitled to our opinions, and we don’t have to agree. Obviously I had mine. I shared mine. I stand by it. But I do also believe that safety and fairness are of the utmost importance in any sport, but especially elite level sport — they worked so hard to get there.”

It comes as the question of trans women in sport consumes parliamentary time and millions in Australian taxpayer funding, despite the so-called “threat” virtually never actually materialising in elite level sports, in part due to trans women making up as little as 0.6% of the population.

Accordingly, many critics are arguing the true “horror” may not reside in trans inclusion, or in a difficult beauty pageant question, but rather in the fact that many Australian athletes who currently compete in women’s sport have to work second jobs just to survive, or in the findings of a recent Trevor Project study that found that anti-trans sports bans correlated with increased suicide attempts among trans youth.