The Miss Italy competition will not allow transgender women to compete, with its patron saying that contestants "must be a woman from birth," weeks after Miss Netherlands crowned its first transgender winner.
"Lately, beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd," Miss Italy Official Patron Patrizia Mirigliani said this month during an interview with Radio Cusano, Il Primato Nazionale reported, according to a translation from Google.
"Since it was born, my competition has foreseen in its regulation the clarification according to which one must be a woman from birth. Probably because, even then, it was foreseen that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women," Mirigliani added, Il Primato Nazionale reported.
Newsweek reached out to the Miss Italy contest press office via email for further comment.
Polling suggests support for transgender rights in Italy is generally comparable to that in other Western nations. In 2016, the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute conducted a poll in 23 countries, including in Italy, to gauge worldwide support for transgender individuals. A majority in 21 of those countries, including Italy, "support policies banning discrimination against transgender people."
Additionally, the poll created a scale to gauge the average level of support for transgender rights among different countries. It found that Russia ranked the lowest, at 41 out of 100, while Spain ranked the highest, at 74. Italy ranked at 57.
Mirigliani's comments come just a few weeks after the Miss Netherlands contest crowned its first transgender woman winner, Rikkie Valerie Kollé. According to NPR, following her victory in the contest, Kollé will go on to represent her country in the 2023 Miss Universe contest.
"I DID IT !!!!!" Kollé wrote in an Instagram post on July 9. "Yes I am a trans woman and I would like to share my story, but I am also Rikkie and that is what counts for me. I did this on my own strength and enjoyed every moment."
She added in her caption: "Wherever you are in the world, I want to be there for you and be the example that I myself missed as a little me."
According to the Huffington Post Italy, Mirigliani said that while she was happy that the Miss Netherlands contest included transgender women, she noted that Italy's contest rules will not change to allow transgender women to compete.
In 2012, the Miss Universe contest announced that it was changing its rules to allow transgender women to compete.
"We have a long history of supporting equality for all women and this was something we took very seriously," the president of the Miss Universe contest, Paula Shugart, said at the time, according to Reuters.
The 2018 Miss Universe pageant saw the first transgender woman to compete in Angela Ponce, who previously won the Miss Spain contest.
"This is for you, for those who have no visibility, no voice, because we all deserve a world of respect, inclusion and freedom...And today I am here, proudly representing my nation, all women and human rights," Ponce wrote in an Instagram post at the time.
Updated 07/21/23, 11:55 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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