Will Hong Kong LGBTQ community ever have its own Angela Ponce or Jenna Talackova?
- Ponce’s presence in the Miss Universe pageant shows just how far LGBTQ rights have come since 2012, when the organisers stopped barring transgender people
- Her success should inspire Hong Kong’s transgender women to step up and compete in high-profile pageants
On December 16, Ms Ponce, a transgender woman who won Miss Spain, set a global precedent by competing for the Miss Universe pageant in Bangkok. As a human rights activist who supports LGBTQ rights in Hong Kong, I wonder when Hong Kong’s transgender women will ever win similar acclaim and recognition.
Because of Ms Talackova’s experience, I could not have expected that a transgender woman could take part in an international pageant competition just six years later. As far as I was concerned, fighting for LGBTQ rights in such a high-profile manner would draw ugly criticism, verbal assaults and perhaps familial shame due to the sexual exclusiveness exercised by worldwide Trump-like netizens, especially when LGBTQ awareness is not well-established in most populations, including Hong Kong.
Ponce emphasised that she could never have enjoyed the right to represent her country in Miss Universe if Talackova had not fought for her rights. Rome was not built in a day. More transgender women, and people recognised as LGBTQ ambassadors and activists, should step up and declare their desire to compete for pageant contests at the regional, national and even international level. In so doing, they can carry on the efforts put in by pioneers like Ponce and Talackova and champion for LGBTQ rights in the wider world.