The first transgender woman to win Miss Universe Netherlands has embraced the backlash she's received, thanking "haters" for "giving me a bigger platform."
Rikkie Valerie Kollé, 22, made history on Saturday by winning the pageant in the European country as the first openly transgender person to do so. Kollé will now head to El Salvador in December to represent The Netherlands in the international contest, Miss Universe, where she will be the second transgender woman ever to compete. Angela Ponce was the first, when she represented Spain in 2018.
"It was a spectacular moment for me, I was in full disbelief when I was crowned Miss Universe Netherlands as the first transgender woman, ever," she said in an exclusive interview with Newsweek. "I'm proud of that and the night was amazing."
Kollé started her career as a model and was inspired to join the Miss Netherlands pageant because it "gives you an opportunity to speak and use your voice."
"You can talk about what you want to change in society or what you think you can offer," she explained, and added that she is "surrounded by many Queer friends and so many drag queens," which led her to fall in love with the pageantry of their performances.
"Let's make my Queer community proud by doing this," the model said.
Despite clear support from her competitors and both the reigning Miss Universe and Miss Netherlands on the night, there was a swift negative backlash on social media to her win.
Some people argued that a transgender woman shouldn't have been allowed to compete, let alone win, and according to Kollé, she even received death threats.
"They see us as monsters, and my daily DMs are full of people wishing me dead," she said.
But Kollé expected to be inundated by online trolls after winning, and that has only emboldened her to speak up more for her community.
"Wishing me dead and telling me to suicide, those things are terrible to write, but at the same it's only lifting me up because I get a bigger platform than I could ever dream of," she said defiantly.
The interest in Kollé's win has been huge and she's done a number of media interviews "because of this hate," which shows that even for a progressive country such as The Netherlands, there is still a long way to go for transgender rights.
"The only thing I want to say to the haters is 'thank you, because you're giving me a bigger platform than I can ever imagine," she explained.
In 2001, The Netherlands became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage, and in 2014 it passed a law that would make it easier for transgender people to self-identify and update the markers on official documentation to reflect their true gender.
She says, however, that there are still many barriers for transgender people accessing gender-affirming health care, including a long waiting list, something Kollé wants to use her newfound fame to change.
"I want to speak up for the trans people who need it, as a little kid I didn't have someone to look up to. I really want to be that role model and inspiration for others," she said.
"I also want to do something [for] the trans health-care waiting list... the lists are really, really long. And that needs to change because people need to get help as soon as they can because it's a necessary thing [for people's mental health]."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
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