Miss Universe Celebrates Its First Openly Gay Contestant and It’s About Time
Miss South Africa, Zozibini Tunzi, was crowned 2019’s Miss Universe and it was a major win for dark-skinned black girls and women everywhere, who were able to see someone who looks like them take home the crown
Photo: Instagram/missuniversemyanmar
Miss South Africa, Zozibini Tunzi, was crowned 2019’s Miss Universe and it was a major win for dark-skinned black girls and women everywhere, who were able to see someone who looks like them take home the crown. “I grew up in a world where a woman who looks like me — with my kind of skin and my kind of hair — was never considered to be beautiful,” she said. I think it is time that that stops today. I want children to look at me and see my face and I want them to see their faces reflected in mine..” It was a wonderful and important moment but last night was also in many ways a win for the pageant’s first openly gay contestant — Swe Zin Htet, the reigning Miss Myanmar.
Htet came out publicly just a week before participating in the pageant’s final on Sunday. This was a brave move for a number of reasons. For starters, she is the first openly gay contestant in the competition’s 67-year history. She’s also from a country where homosexuality is still illegal.
“I have that platform that, if I say that I’m a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBTQ community back in Burma,” she told People. The difficult thing is that in Burma, LGBTQ people are not accepted, they are looked down on by people and are being discriminated against.”
The Miss Universe pageant which has faced tons of criticism in the past for its lack of diversity, inclusion, and even sexism, has slowly been making some progress. Just last year, Miss Universe has its first-ever transgender contestant — Angela Ponce. The Spanish model and beauty pageant contestant who won Miss Universe Spain 2018, went down in history as the first transgender woman to be crowned Miss Spain.
The pageant is finally recognizing the importance of showcasing all kinds of women of all skin tones, hair textures, and lifestyles and the significance this has on culture and society.
“We are honored to give a platform to strong, inspirational women like Miss Universe Myanmar, who are brave enough to share their unique stories with the world,” Miss Universe President, Paula Shugart said. “Miss Universe will always champion women to be proud of who they are.”
This year we have recognized a significant difference in the conversations around what a pageant queen should look like and be like. For the first time ever, Miss America, Miss Teen USA, and Miss USA were ALL black women this year. For years the default beauty standard in pageants — even Miss Universe ironically enough — was white. The overall standard was white, cisgender, straight, and feminine. If you were anything outside of that you risked even being able to participate.
There’s still a lot of work to do when it comes to representation not just in beauty pageants but across the board, but it’s inspiring to see us finally getting there.
