Meet trans beauty queen Nguyen Huong Giang, first Vietnamese Miss International Queen winner and an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights

Nguyen Huong Giang made headlines in her native Vietnam when she admitted to being transgender on reality show Vietnam Idol in 2012. The first openly transgender contestant on the show, her confession took the country by storm, spurring debate about the topic and shedding light on the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community in the country.

When Nguyen advanced, becoming one of the final four contestants, she not only found a platform for her talent but her identity, as members of the public acknowledged – and even empathised with – her journey so far.

Nguyen made waves again in 2018 when she was crowned the first Vietnamese winner of the prestigious Miss International Queen, the world’s biggest annual beauty pageant for transgender women held in Pattaya, Thailand. She radiated pride and joy in her fiery red fishtail gown, and humbly shared her wishes to empower other Vietnamese trans people to come out, pursue their dreams and be happy.

Thriving on her success, today Nguyen continues to cultivate her blooming career as a singer and entertainer, appearing as a guest on TV shows and being named an ambassador for several brands. She has become a celebrity in her own right with an impressive 4 million followers on Instagram, as well as a lavish lifestyle with plenty of fancy clothes, holidays, cars and properties.

However, despite her fame and fortune, Nguyen’s life is otherwise not so different from many other transgender people in Vietnam: full of tearful moments and personal struggle spurred by deep-rooted societal prejudices.