Jenna Talackova allowed to compete in Miss Universe Canada if she meets ‘legal gender requirements’
Postmedia News Apr 2, 2012 – 10:51 PM ET | Last Updated: Apr 2, 2012 10:56 PM ET
ModelMayhem.com
Jenna Talackova, 23, was dropped from the pageant because, as she put it, "I am not ‘natural born.’ ”
By Andrea Woo
Jenna Talackova, the transgender beauty queen who was kicked out the Miss Universe Canada competition last month, will be allowed to compete after all, the organization announced Monday — if she can prove she meets the “legal gender recognition requirements of Canada” and other international competitions.
The brief statement issued by the organization did not specify what such requirements entail.
Talackova, 23, was dropped from the pageant two weeks ago “because I am not ‘natural born,’ ” the Vancouver native wrote in an email to the Vancouver Sun at the time. “That doesn’t make sense because since I was conscious I always felt this way.”
The Miss Universe Organization said she “did not meet the requirements to compete despite having state otherwise on her entry form.”
Talackova says she has known she was a female since she was four years old. She began hormone therapy at 14 and had sex reassignment surgery in 2010.
Her profile was quietly taken down from the Miss Universe Canada’s finalists’ page in mid-March.
The 61st annual Miss Universe Canada pageant will be held next month in Toronto.
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