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‘Embrace and adapt’: Singapore transgender beauty queen on her journey to Miss Universe
Qatrisha Zairyah, who has reached the finals of Miss Universe Singapore, hopes her story will help ease prejudice against transgender people
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Since Miss Universe Singapore, widely regarded as the biggest pageant in the city state, announced that a transgender woman had made the finals last week, beauty queen Qatrisha Zairyah has had to deal with online vitriol.
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The 1.8-metre-tall (5.9 feet) fashion adviser, 33, has competed in the biggest beauty competitions locally and abroad for transgender women, finishing among the top four in most of them, and told This Week in Asia she wanted to test herself on the biggest stage.
“It’s once in a lifetime. This is the biggest pageant in the world,” Qatrisha said.
The Miss Universe Organisation has allowed transgender contestants who are legally women to participate since 2012, and countries including Portugal, the Netherlands and Spain have been represented by such beauty queens.
If Qatrisha wins the Singapore pageant, she will be the first transgender woman from Asia to compete in the international Miss Universe contest.
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However, since the announcement last week that a transgender woman had made the finals for the first time in the local pageant’s 70-year history, online users in the conservative city state have been critical.
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