I was very moved when I found out that the Miss Universe organization would allow Jenna Talackova to compete, reversing their earlier decision to disqualify her because she is transgender. The organization's statement asserted that she will be allowed to compete only "provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions." It's wonderful that the organization has stated that it will allow Jenna to compete, but it needs to go further. The Miss Universe organization needs to make a public statement saying that it is working to revise its policy once and for all so that the competition is open to all women, and it must set a deadline for the written revision of the policy.
As the media noise gets louder, I believe it's essential that we remember that this is a case about equality, that no one should have a glass ceiling on their dreams. This is an opportunity for the Miss Universe organization to make a statement about inclusion. In a discussion about this case on my Facebook page, a number of transgender women remarked that "rules are rules." Many stated that trans women have our own beauty pageants. Many countered my call for inclusion, asking, "Should we allow non-trans women to enter pageants that until now have been reserved for trans women?" Reading these comments, I couldn't help but think about the Jim Crow laws, which mandated in Southern states after the Civil War that in all public facilities African Americans were to have "separate but equal" access. We now know that separate was never equal. African Americans were second-class citizens. Sometimes rules are discriminatory and need to be changed.
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