First-ever transgender contestant participates in Miss Universe pageant, loses

The first ever male, who identifies as trans and claims to be a woman, competed in the Miss Universe pageant over the weekend.

Although slated as a favorite to win, Angela Ponce, a trans-identified woman who represented Spain in the international pageant held in Bangkok Sunday and Monday, ultimately did not make it into the top 20.

Miss Philippines, Catriona Gray, was crowned Miss Universe Monday, besting contestants from 93 other nations.

The Miss Universe show was formerly owned by President Trump and used to ban trans-identified contestants. That ban was scrapped in 2012.

"Trans women have been persecuted and erased for so long. If they give me the crown, it would show trans women are just as much women as cis women," the Spanish trans-identified contestant told TIME, when asked in November if winning would amount to a rebuke to Trump. Ponce said receiving the crown would be more than a message but "a win for human rights."

The prefix "cis" is a Latin word meaning "on the side of" and is used by transactivists and others to distinguish between those who do and do not identify as trans.

Ponce, who has undergone gender reassignment surgery, said to reporters as the pageant began: "I always say: Having a vagina didn't transform me into a woman."

Ponce claimed to be a woman before birth because for Ponce identity is in the mind, not the body.

Some pointed out the incoherence of those celebrating Ponce's participation as history-making.

"Our progressive overlords are currently insisting that A) women deserve to be free and empowered instead of subjugated by male privilege but also that B) men can in fact *be women* just as well as women can. This worldview is totally incoherent," tweeted National Review's Alexandra DeSanctis, linking to an article hailing Ponce as "stunning."

The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh noted a double standard.

"Male appropriates womanhood and intrudes on female competition, applauded by same people who get angry if a white guy wears an Indian headdress on Halloween," he said of the liberal approval of transgenderism and simultaneous disdain for cultural appropriation.

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