Trans Woman Kicked Out of Miss Universe Canada Pageant: Reporting the Jenna Talackova Story
March 24, 2012. 12:34 am • Section: Trans Talk
Posted by: Jillian Page
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/03/24/trans-woman-kicked-out-of-pageant-reporting-the-jenna-talackova-story/I was working on the online paper tonight when the story about Jenna Talackova of Vancouver came across the wire (see preceding post). So there I am, a veteran copy editor and someone who knows a fair bit about trans issues, yet I struggled with the headline on that story.
The headline that came from Postmedia referred to Jenna as a woman "born male." They didn't use a "trans" word in their headline. I changed it to say "trans woman." I didn't like doing it — I wish we could have just called her a woman, because that is her status: Female. But, sadly, the fact that she is a transitioned woman is relevant in this story because, she alleges, she was booted out of the Miss Universe Canada pageant because she wasn't a "natural born" woman.
Was she really a male when she was born? That's debatable. We have long ago determined in this blog that what you are born with between your legs does not always accurately determine gender — and there is no doubt in my mind that Jenna is female.
