Italian Pageant Bars Males From Competition, Will Not Participate In ‘Glittery Bandwagon Of Trans Activism’

The Miss Italia beauty pageant will not allow male contestants, the contest’s curator told Italian outlet Radio Cusano.

The pageant’s curator, Patrizia Mirigliani, told Radio Cusano that only biological women are allowed to participate in the beauty competition. Weeks earlier, a man who identifies as transgender drew international headlines after winning the Miss Netherlands beauty pageant.

“Lately beauty contests have been trying to make the news by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd… Miss Italia, on the other hand, will not jump on the glittery bandwagon of trans activism,” Mirigliani told Radio Cusano. “Only those who are women, biologically speaking, can participate and not those who perceive themselves as such.”

Mirigliani said she has nothing against transgender people, but that she does not believe regulations should change to allow transgender-identified males into women’s pageants.

Rikkie Valerie Kolle, a man who identifies as a transgender woman, won the Miss Netherlands beauty pageant in July and will now go on to compete in the Miss Universe pageant.

“It’s unreal, but I get to call myself [Miss Netherlands] 2023. It was an educational and beautiful journey… I’m so proud and happy I can’t even describe it,” Kolle said in an Instagram post.

A federal court determined in November that the Miss United States of America pageant could prohibit males from competing after a male participant who had been rejected by the competition sued.

The Miss Italia Pageant did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.