LGBT News Vietnam Continues to Bar Transgender People From Beauty Pageants

A damn shame, considering how many breathtaking women are from Vietnam, natural-born or not. And no cosmetic surgery whatsoever? What's the purpose of this?

I say the TS community in Vietnam start their own beauty pageants.

 

It has also come to my attention that the East has more problems than the west in concerns to LGBTQA standards.

 

This is quite an interesting debacle. Normally, I'd think that the law isn't too bad, but considering the transfolk that are caught in this, it makes everything more confusing

 

Don't most beauty contests have a rule that all participants must not have undergone any cosmetic surgery? That seems like a fair rule to me. Anyone can look beautiful after spending thousands of dollars on surgery, just like anyone can get buff from steroids, in the case of athletic contests.

 

Not all transwomen have undergone cosmetic surgery.

 

Then it would be very unlikely for them to physically look like women, wouldn't it?

 

You'd be surprised.

 

I would guess most beauty pageants don't have a rule like that but it is just a guess and a good question. I would like to find out the answer to this question some time.

Just my opinion but I don't think an across-the-board ban is fair at all. Part of a woman's beauty is going to be her style anyway, the way she dresses and presents. These women aren't performing "in the buff" and I bet they get to wear make-up.

And it would mean that a woman who was in, say, a car accident, and had a scar removed, would not be able to participate, even though it could be argued she was just restoring her natural beauty.

I do understand where you're coming from. You shouldn't be able to buy one of these contests with cash you paid for surgeries, and you shouldn't be at a disadvantage if you've never had one. I think that's why a lot of beauty pageants do interviews and have people compete for things like "community involvement".

I think a more fair rule, if you're going to talk about cosmetic surgery, is only surgeries that weren't done to correct defects. That would allow trans women, car accident victims, and the like to compete on an even playing field with people with no surgeries at all.

That's a fair question.

Some of us transition knowing they won't be able to completely undo what testosterone has done. In fact, some of us transition to living as women full time without any medical help at all.

And some of us are lucky enough to be passable as women without any help. Passing is about gender clues, and if your body doesn't have any "giveaways" then the only clues you are giving people are how you dress, sound, and present.

Passing is a controversial subject, because gender dysphoria is something that some people simply need to treat, and in some parts of the world, they can't treat it because people who would otherwise help them have made the decision that they would be less happy if they couldn't pass for them.

For some of us, being a little unusual is far easier, or at least more rewarding, than being in the wrong skin and role.