Kathmandu (Pahichan) March 14 – American contestant Jazell Barbie Royale was crowned \u201cMiss International Queen\u201d in Thailand on Friday at a beauty pageant for transgender women, becoming the first person of colour to win the competition since it started in 2004.<\/p>\n
Royale buried her face in her hands, spread her arms in victory and welled up with tears when news of the victory was announced in the seaside city of Pattaya.<\/p>\n
The community leader and HIV activist edged out 19 other candidates from around the world including Brazil, Peru and several Asian countries.<\/p>\n
She said she hopes her triumph inspires other people of colour around the world who might say \u201cif she can do it, I\u2019m coming to Miss International Queen next year and I\u2019m going to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hailing from Florida, Royale said she wanted to use her newfound platform to educate others about the importance of HIV testing, safe sex and medical care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are (many) living with HIV but don\u2019t go to get treatment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The theme for this year\u2019s contest was world equality.<\/p>\n
Royale\u2019s victory in Thailand came as the Trump administration back home tries to stop transgender recruitment in the military, a battle being waged in the courts.<\/p>\n
She said that if she had to send a message to Trump she would tell him \u201cplease don\u2019t run for next term.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old also took home the Best Talent award.<\/p>\n
Before the show, aspiring Miss Queens took selfies, glanced in the mirror for a final look or sat still as stylists put the finishing touches on their makeup and hair.<\/p>\n
Host country Thailand has a more visible and empowered transgender community compared to its neighbours.<\/p>\n
The first transgender candidate for prime minister made headlines this month ahead of March 24 elections.<\/p>\n
When Thailand hosted the Miss Universe contest last year Miss Spain was the first-ever transgender contestant.<\/p>\n
But same-sex marriage is still not legally recognised in the country and discrimination persists.<\/p>\n
The Miss International Queen pageant has been hailed for offering contestants a chance to bond with others from around the world.<\/p>\n
Thailand\u2019s relatively open-minded attitude on LGBT issues is a welcome break for contestants who hail from less tolerant countries, including Malaysia, where anti-LGBT rhetoric has picked up in recent months.<\/p>\n
An opposition leader said last year that a quake-tsunami that killed thousands in neighbouring Indonesia was \u201cpunishment from Allah\u201d for the activities of gay people.<\/p>\n
Malaysia\u2019s Larra Jassinta, 24, highlighted the discrimination problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the LGBT community in Malaysia, they don\u2019t have work, home nor family because the family cannot accept them,\u201d Jassinta said.<\/p>\n
Source : New Straits Time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kathmandu (Pahichan) March 14 – American contestant Jazell Barbie Royale was crowned \u201cMiss International Queen\u201d in Thailand on Friday at a beauty pageant for transgender women, becoming the first person of colour to win the competition since it started in 2004.
\nRoyale buried her face in her hands, spread her arms in victory and welled up with tears when news of the victory was announced in the seaside city of Pattaya.
\nThe community leader and HIV activist edged out 19 other candidates from around the world including Brazil, Peru and several Asian …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,621,490,11],"tags":[524,588,458],"class_list":["post-11785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-issue","category-news","category-slider","category-world","tag-lgbt","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-transgender"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11787,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785\/revisions\/11787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}