Days after Rikkie Valerie Kollé created history by becoming the first-ever transgender woman to win Miss Netherlands, the Miss Italy pageant has banned transgender contestants from taking part in the beauty contest. Patrizia Mirigliani, the Official Patron of the contest, stated during an interview with Radio Cusano 'this competition has foreseen in its regulation the clarification, according to which, one must be a woman from birth.'
“Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that, I think, are a bit absurd. Miss Italia, on the other hand, will not jump on the glittery bandwagon of trans activism. Since it was first started, this 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," Mirigliani was quoted as saying by Il Primato Nazionale.
Evie Magazine reported that Mirigliani criticized efforts from other competitions to create inclusivity as "a bit absurd" and merely attempts to "make the news." She also claimed the rules for the competition always specified that entrants must be a woman from birth.
Further, Mirigliani added that simplicity always pays off. "Tattooed girls, with piercings and extensions participate in our contest. It’s all part of the new way of talking about women, but we try not to facilitate everything that is excessive to accentuate the aesthetics. Excesses are not good."
The Miss Italy competition has regularly made updates to maintain strict standards on entry, with a major update in 2012 to ban any contestant who had undergone plastic surgery, The Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time.
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