In her first press conference since being ousted from the Miss Universe Canada pageant, Vancouver’s Jenna Talackova, who was born male, called for the contest’s “naturally born” female requirement to be permanently overturned. The 23-year-old was flanked by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, who focused blame for Ms. Talackova’s disqualification on pageant owner Donald Trump. “[Ms. Talackova] did not ask Mr. Trump to prove that he is a naturally born man or … to see his anatomy to prove that he was male,” she said.
The Los Angeles press conference was the latest development in a beauty pageant spat that has unwittingly morphed into one of the world’s most visible transgender issues. With thousands of supporters rallying to her cause over the last two weeks, Ms. Talackova, a career beauty pageant contestant, has found herself as a sudden campaigner for transsexual rights.
“She’s very visible, and people are saying ‘Here is a beautiful person who transitioned,’ ” said Jillian Page, a Montreal-based blogger on transgendered issues. “So many guys are saying, ‘She’s beautiful, she has to be a woman’ — very few people are discussing chromosomes.”
Ms. Talackova was one of 65 contestants poised to compete for the title of Miss Universe Canada, but in mid-March she was officially disqualified and her profile quietly taken down from the official Miss Universe website. “She did not meet the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form,” read a statement by Miss Universe Canada.
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Jenna Talackova and her attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles Tuesday.
On Monday, amid mounting public backlash, the organization reversed the decision, but added the caveat that Ms. Talackova must meet “the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada.” During Tuesday’s press conference, Ms. Talackova produced her Canadian passport, which identifies her as a woman, and called on Mr. Trump to say, “in plain words whether or not I will be allowed to compete.”
“I have never asked for any special consideration, I only wanted to compete,” she said.
The Miss Universe Organization has also asked that Ms. Talackova meet the “standards established by other international competitions.” As a result, Ms. Talackova’s bid for Miss Universe inclusion could go global, Ms. Page said. “Maybe that’s what Trump and company have in mind,” she said.
Ms. Allred is known for representing high-profile clients, such as: English actress Charlotte Lewis, who alleged that director Roman Polanski had sexually abused her as a teen; Nicole Brown Simpson’s family during the O.J. Simpson murder trial; and a number of Tiger Woods’ ex-lovers.
“[Donald] Trump has caved in a bit already. He has to go the rest of the way and say it loudly, and say it clearly, that not only will Jenna be allowed to compete, but that the rule is gone — no ifs, ands, buts or ors. No conditions and no excuses,” Ms. Allred told reporters.
“Otherwise, we are considering all of Jenna’s legal options.”
As international competitions go, the Olympics have typically been the staging ground for transgendered issues, with women who were born male being accused of having an unfair advantage. In 2004, just before the Athens Olympics, the International Olympic Committee ruled that transexuals could compete, as long as they had completed sex reassignment surgery — and had undergone hormone therapy for at least two years.
In the case of a beauty pageant, it is “hard to claim that Ms. Talackova has an unfair advantage over other women competing for the crown,” reads a March 29 blog post by Mercedes Allen, operator of the Alberta transgendered website AlbertaTrans.org.
Ms. Talackova says she has known she was a female since she was four years old. She began hormone therapy at 14 and had sex reassignment surgery in 2010. “Since I was conscious I always felt this way,” she wrote in an email to Postmedia News two weeks ago.
Ms. Talackova “understandably realizes that her case could be a significant landmark for the dignity and liberty of LGBTQ citizens everywhere,” reads a weekend statement by Talackova spokesman Rory Richards. The 61st annual Miss Universe Canada pageant will begin May 11 in Toronto.
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