Yes for trans inclusion.
Though not everyone is sold on beauty pageants, but at least South Africa’s premiere beauty pageant – i.e. Miss South Africa – is now allowing transgender women to compete.
“Trans women are eligible to enter the Miss South Africa pageant,” the Miss South Africa organization stated on its website, just as it announced that entries for the competition are now accepted.
In order to be eligible to compete internationally, the contestant must be in possession of a valid South African ID document reflecting that their “amended sex” is female.
The Miss Universe competition lifted a ban on transgender contestants in 2012.
With this, South Africa joins Panama, Spain, Canada and Nepal, among others, in allowing transgender contestants to take part in the international beauty pageant.
In 2018, specifically, transgender woman Angela Ponce represented Spain in the Miss Universe pageant in Thailand.
South Africa is actually among the more progressive countries in the continent – e.g. homosexuality is legal in South Africa.
