Angela Ponce, model and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss Spain 2018 has become the first transgender Miss Universe contestant in the pageant’s 66-year history.
Speaking with ABS-CBN, Angela Ponce said that Trans women have been persecuted and erased for so long.
“I’m showing that trans women can be whatever they want, she continued.
“I am proud to have the opportunity to use this platform for a message of inclusion, tolerance and respect for the LGBT+ community.
“I was born into a world, into a society which really wasn’t prepared for me. I had the support of my family, but I still faced discrimination, and I had no role models.
“So many children face discrimination for being different. It is important to tell them they have a right to be who they are, who they want to be,” Ponce added.
The Miss Universe Organization, which owns the beauty pageant, lifted a ban on transgender contestants in 2012.
The competition airs in more than 190 countries, with an estimated half a billion viewers annually.
