Transgender women will be allowed to compete in the Miss Universe beauty pageant next year if a proposed rule change is approved by NBC and Donald Trump, the contest's co-owners. The policy shift comes a week after the Miss Universe Organization reversed its disqualification of Jenna Talackova, allowing her to compete for Canada's spot in the 2012 pageant.
Talackova was born male and underwent gender reassignment surgery several years ago. She was originally disqualified from Miss Universe Canada under a rule requiring contestants to be "naturally born" women. The advocacy group GLAAD asked the Miss Universe Organization to review her case.
"I am a woman. I was devastated, and I felt that excluding me for the reason that they gave was unjust. I have never asked for any special consideration. I only wanted to compete." — Jenna Talackova
"We want to give credit where credit is due, and the decision to include transgender women in our beauty competitions is a result of our ongoing discussions with GLAAD. We have a long history of supporting equality for all women, and this was something we took very seriously." — Paula Shugart, President, Miss Universe Organization
The response from transgender-rights organizations was largely positive. "Absolutely it's good news. Everybody should be allowed to participate in every aspect of society," said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Others framed the moment as incremental. "The next question is, can't we move beyond beauty pageants and make changes in areas that have more relevance," said Susan Stryker, director of the Institute for LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona.
If approved by NBC and Trump, the rule change will mark the first time a major international pageant has formally opened its eligibility criteria to transgender contestants at the parent-organization level. It would also set a reference point for advocacy groups pushing similar changes at peer pageants and pageant-adjacent competitions.
Why the Communications Decision Matters
For the Miss Universe Organization, the rule review is a crisis communications case in real time. The original disqualification produced a fast, organized advocacy response. The Organization's reversal and its subsequent willingness to consider a formal rule change reframed the story from "pageant excludes contestant" to "pageant updates rules in dialogue with advocates."
The framing matters because the pageant's commercial value sits on top of broadcaster relationships, sponsor contracts, and contestant pipelines that all read the same headlines. Each of those audiences is now watching how the Organization handles the next step.
How the co-owners decide is unlikely to be a purely ideological call. Beauty pageants are entertainment properties with audiences, advertisers, and broadcasters attached. If a sustained boycott or sponsor pullback materializes against the policy change, that pressure will factor in. If not, the new rule will likely move forward.
For now, the Talackova case has already done something the pageant industry rarely does on its own — force a sitting policy out into public review.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
