 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a national beauty pageant could bar transgender contestants from taking part in the program.
The 9th U.S.
circuit court of appeals said the pageant has a First Amendment right to
exclude a transgender woman, adding her inclusion could interfere with the
message the pageant intents to send about “what it means to be a woman,” The
Associated Press reported.
Anita Green,
a transgender had filed a lawsuit against the pageant arguing the Miss United
States of America pageant, arguing the organization had violated an Oregon
state anti-discrimination law after she was barred from contesting in 2019, according
to The Associated Press.
Attorneys
for the Miss United States of America Pageants said the program was designed to
celebrate and promote “natural born women,” by sending a message of “biological
female empowerment,” according to The Associated Press.
But Green
countered saying her exclusion violated a state law that prohibits denying
people their rights based on their sex or gender identity. Green also said her application
was rejected by the organization because it did not consider her to be a “natural
born female.”
She was
excluded from the Miss United States of America’s Miss Oregon pageant having
contested in the Miss Montana USA, Miss Earth and Ms. World Universal.
The pageant
makes selection based on contestants’ age, marital status and gender identity.
Judges voted
2-1 in favor of the pageant, noting that the organization could not be forced
to include a transgender woman as that could fundamentally alter the message the
pageant intents to send.
“As with theater, cinema, or the Super Bowl halftime show, beauty pageants combine speech with live performances such as music and dancing to express a message,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote for the majority, according to The Associated Press. “And while the content of that message varies from pageant to pageant, it is commonly understood that beauty pageants are generally designed to express the ‘ideal vision of American womanhood.’”