Catherine Paneral
Jour 4460
March 27, 2012
Blog Ten
Are you looking for
drama?
It seems like you can’t do anything these
days without upsetting someone. You would think everyone would be tiptoeing
around to stay in the positive light. Not the Miss Universe pageant.
For those of you who are out of the loop, an
article was published Monday, March 26, about Miss Universe Canada Jenna
Talackove being disqualified from the pageant for not being born a natural
woman. The 23 year-old has been a woman for the last four years but says she
had known she was a female from the age of four. She started treatment when she
was 14 and had surgery when she was 19.
In this day and age it is more acceptable to
be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transsexual. As generations continue to grow
older, I feel that members of the GLBT community will soon be fully accepted
for what they are: people. With all the gay-rights movements and protests that
have taken place in the last few years, it is shocking to me that Miss Universe
Canada would dare disqualify someone because of their gender status. I
understand that the rules say you must be a “natural born female” but times are
changing people. Is the pageant looking for a new group to protest them?
Because that’s what they are going to get.
Miss Universe needs to apologize to Jenna and
the public. They need to sit down and reevaluate the rules for the pageant.
Times are changing and if you don’t change with them you will be left behind
and possibly disliked.
According to the National Post, Jenna Talackova is accusing the pageant of
discrimination for her being disqualified. There is an online petition that has
been signed by more than 300,000 supporters for Jenna to be reinstated to the
pageant.
“’This
is discriminatory, unjust, and quite frankly disgusting,’ said Oscar Dimant of
Brooklyn, New York, listed as the author of the online petition at change.org. ‘She
is a woman and deserves to be treated as any other woman would be.’”
The pageant looks for women who have overcome
a challenge in their life. What better challenge can get than having to change
who you are on the outside because of who you are on the inside? Not only does
it seem like Jenna would be the perfect candidate, but her participation would
bring great attention to the pageant. PR for Miss Universe could totally play
this in their favor. Any negative protest from anti-GLBT groups could be hushed
by saying Miss Universe accepts all women for who they are and they do not
discriminate. Heck, they could even start a side pageant for men, gay or
straight, if they wanted to. Whatever. Jenna’s participation would be a
historical marking for Miss Universe and the pageant could forever hold the
honor that they accepted her and supported equality for all.
Sources:
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