Transmissions: Passing it on, publicly
Published 06/14/2012
by Gwendolyn Ann Smith
http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=67807Miss Rhode Island – 20-year-old Olivia Culpo – won the Miss USA pageant. The new queen, a lithe figure described as having a bubbly personality, will now spend the next year making personal appearances and whatever else it is that beauty pageant winners do nowadays.
Prior to her win, Culpo was given a difficult final round question: "Would you feel it would be fair that a transgender woman wins the Miss USA title over a natural-born woman?"
Her answer? "I do think that that would be fair but I can understand that people would be a little apprehensive to take that road because there is a tradition of natural-born women," Culpo said. "But today where there are so many surgeries and so many people out there who have a need to change for a happier life, I do accept that because I believe it's a free country."
On the other end of the pageant spectrum sits Miss Pennsylvania, Sheena Monnin – or I should say the former Miss Pennsylvania. She quit the pageant, claiming that the contest was rigged. Yet the story goes deeper: pageant officials claims that she resigned not because of concerns over fairness of the competition, but because she was upset with the pageant's recent decision to allow transgender competitors.
