Queens for a day
Asheville's Miss Gay Latina transgender beauty pageant inspires a filmmaker, a celebrity and a community
by Alli Marshall in Vol. 17 / Iss. 15 on 11/02/2010
http://www.mountainx.com/ae/2010/110310queens-for-a-dayFirst, there's the story about the women who have been working for months — nearly half a year — to prepare themselves for a beauty pageant. Daniela Vega, Ivanna Brunnely, Yeraldine Kennedy, Carolina Olivares, Jaqueline del Castillo and Isabella Franco is how they're known on stage. They practice their walking, makeup, dance routines and talents. They work on their dresses which are so elaborate and heavy that they require a truck to move them to the competition site. And they've attracted the attention of film star Andie MacDowell.
But these women didn't begin as beauty queens. They didn't even begin as women. That's another story. Some of the six contestants in the third annual Miss Gay Latina transgender beauty pageant are currently undergoing hormone therapy treatment to alter their outward appearance so that it matches how they identify themselves: as women. The pageant is an opportunity to really be those women, and so they work tirelessly in preparation for the show.
