Midori Monet was crowned Miss International Queen!
Pattaya, Thailand, Sep 20 (EFE).-
American Midori Monet was crowned Miss International Queen on Saturday, the world’s most prestigious transgender beauty pageant, in its 21st edition held in Pattaya, Thailand.
On Saturday, Monet told EFE that this pageant is especially significant in the United States, where laws against the transgender community are passed “almost daily.”
“We were here before Trump and we will continue to be here after him,” she said, referring to President Donald Trump, whose administration and local governments have enacted measures restricting the rights of transgender women, including a presidential decree prohibiting them from competing in women’s sports.
Monet had already stood out during the preliminary gala in Bangkok before winning the final against Olivia Lauren of Cuba and Ha Tam Nhu of Vietnam, who finished second and third, respectively.
Participants from 23 countries and territories joined the contest, including representatives from Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, and Nicaragua.
The final event marked the conclusion of two weeks of activities in which participants showcased traditional costumes from their cultures, paraded in swimsuits and evening gowns, and visited tourist attractions in Thailand.
Monet received the crown from 2024’s winner, Catalina Marsano of Peru, at the end of a show organized by Tiffany’s Show Company, which created the pageant in 2004 to promote transgender rights.
Thailand, a world leader in gender reassignment surgery, hosted the pageant a month before Miss Grand International, which does not allow transgender contestants, and just a few weeks before Miss Universe, which will return to Thailand in November.
This pageant welcomed a transgender woman for the first time in 2018, when Spain’s Ángela Ponce made history.
Although Thailand is a leader in the region in terms of LGBT+ rights (in 2025, it became the first country in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriage), activists warned that much remains to be done to eliminate discrimination. EFE
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