Trans men enter Miss Italy pageant in droves after trans women are told they can’t compete

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“They would never think that a trans person might even aspire to win a beauty pageant, because we’re seen as this kind of, like, three-headed monster, and I think a part of it is that so many people have never seen trans women or trans men or trans people in general,” he said.

He said excluding trans women from beauty pageants or school sports sends the message that “trans women are not women,” which has a ripple effect on how they are treated and on state and national policy.

“The result of it is just transphobia,” Barbarossa said. “It kind of adds up to a level where the U.S. is kind of representative right now, where every state is passing anti-trans laws.” Twenty-two states have banned trans students from competing on the school sports teams that align with their gender identities, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank.

Barbarossa described Italy’s government as the “most far right” it has had since World War II. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni denounced what she called “gender ideology” and “the LGBT lobby” during her campaign. Her government has barred same-sex parents from being listed on their children’s birth certificates if they aren’t biologically related.

Barbarossa said that it appears the Miss Italy organizers are aware of the protest, because they’re speaking with some of the trans men who have been called to selections, but that he hasn’t personally received a call.

“I didn’t get any message which leads me to think I’ve been blacklisted from them,” he said, and then he laughed.

He said he hopes the organizers and those who want to exclude trans women from other spaces will at least talk to trans people and hear their perspectives.

“They are so focused on biology and bodies, and it’s often forgotten that there are people inhabiting those bodies,” he said."