More than 100 trans men have participated in a campaign retaliating against Miss Italy’s ban on trans women competing.
Trans activist Federico Barbarossa launched the campaign with the intention of triggering a “reflection on the absurdity” that competitors must be assigned female at birth.
“We hope that the gesture will arouse the media clamour needed to put these issues back at the centre, and that many other ‘women at birth’ register en masse for the competition,” he told Italian magazine, Ia Repubblica.
“They would reject me because I’m a boy and I look like a boy,” he continued, “while if a trans girl registers, she is rejected because she is not considered a woman: what’s the point, then?”
This protest comes in response to Patrizia Mirigliani, a patron of Miss Italy, declaring that contestants must be “woman from birth” on 23 July.
Mirigliani also claimed that the pageant would not partake in the “glittery bandwagon of trans activism.”
READ MORE: Miss Netherlands: Rikkie Valerie Kolle makes history as first-ever trans winner
The announcement comes just weeks after Rikkie Valerie Kolle made history as the first trans woman to be crowned Miss Netherlands.
The model told her Instagram followers that she’s “so proud” of her historic win and what it means for the trans community.
She is competing in December’s Miss Universe pageant, making the 22-year-old the second trans contestant in the competition’s history.
Angela Ponce, representing Spain, was the first trans contestant in Miss Universe’s history.
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