Transsexual Miss World contest aims to boost
awareness
PATTAYA, Thailand (AFP) - – Shimmering in a tight gold evening
gown, a Japanese television host wept and called for greater
tolerance as she was crowned the world's most beautiful transsexual
at a pageant in Thailand.
Haruna Ai, 37, beat off stiff competition from 20 other
glamorous contestants at the Miss International Queen 2009 who came
to the Thai beach resort of Pattaya from as far as Brazil and the
United States.
"I am very, very, very happy," a tearful Ai told AFP minutes
after the previous title holder carefully placed a faux-diamond
tiara on her head.
"I want contests like this to show everyone that they should
love each other and live freely. The way of life in Japan is more
traditional and transsexuals cannot live freely, but in Thailand
they can do what they want," she said.
The contest, which was called off last year because of political
turmoil in Thailand, is taken just as seriously as more traditional
pageants in a nation famed for its sexual tolerance.
Millions of Thais watched live on television late Saturday as
the statuesque beauties -- all of them born men -- strutted their
stuff at Tiffany's Show Pattaya, billed as the world's largest
transsexual cabaret.
The first round saw them in kitschy national dress, with a US
contestant resplendent in a feathered native American costume and a
British entrant donning a Beefeater outfit with black satin
leggings and Busby hat.
The lights then sank low as the contestants paraded elegant
evening gowns and later modelled pink swimsuits, while giant
fluorescent kites soared over the stage.
Japan's Ai won 10,000 dollars, a year's stay at a Pattaya hotel
and a 500-dollar surgical voucher after judges picked her over
runners-up Karngsadal Wongdusadeekul from Thailand and Daniela
Marques of Brazil.
While the audience may have whooped and cheered raucously,
contestants and organisers said there was a serious side to the
pageant -- boosting public awareness of transgender issues.
"An event like this for us is something I can only hope for in
the United States," said US contestant Sunny Dee-Lite, 32, a party
promoter from New York City who won the best evening gown gong.
Many participants had stories of discrimination.
Maggie Gao, from China, earlier this year won Miss World
Shenzhen, a women's beauty pageant in the southern Chinese city --
but it then emerged that she was a man and the organisers withdrew
her title.
"So I am very glad that Miss International Queen has given me
the chance to take part," the 27-year-old ballet dancer from
Shanghai told AFP backstage before the contest.
Camilia Dzelma, 22, from Singapore, said her Muslim family had
accepted her as she is and called for more transgender beauty
pageants.
"I am here to open up things and show the world that I am not a
freak," said Dzelma, a children's dance instructor at a
government-run school.
"These competitions reduce discrimination. My family is Muslim
but they do not care about what my identity is as long as they know
that I am happy. My mum just called me and wished me good luck,"
she said.
Thailand's laws have failed to keep up with the country's
tolerant reputation.
Transsexuals in Thailand complain that they are legally
discriminated against because they cannot change their gender on
their ID cards, while new rules on waiting periods have been
imposed for sex-change operations.
"In Thailand, after they operate they are physically a woman but
legally a man. In the US and Britain and other countries they can
change their passport so they are a woman," said Alisa Phanthusak,
one of the contest organisers.
Thai contestant Sorawee Nattee, who won the domestic version of
the pageant in May, said that she had been drafted for military
service despite having had a sex-change.
"But when I went to the drafting centre looking like this, like
a girl, with boobs, they told me to go away," the 21-year-old
said.
