When you read this headline, you might thing “What does this have to do with Green Living?”
Well, if you’ve read my blog before, you know that I believe that social conscious and civil rights are a huge part of living green. Yes, it is great to recycle your flip flops, but if those flip flops were made by slaves in a third world country, it’s still not green.
As a child of the ‘60s, I’ve seen people protest for equal rights for African Americans and women. Now, at least in America, it seems the big civil rights struggle is for equal rights for gays and lesbians. Yet, one community that seems to be fighting an uphill battle even more are those that are transgender and transsexual.
Many Americans probably didn’t “know” a transgender person until they saw Chaz Bono on “Dancing with the Stars” last season. Chaz was born Chastity, daughter of singers Sonny and Cher. After years of feeling like a man living in the body of a woman, Chastity changed her name to Chaz and legally had her sex changed from female to male. So, transsexuals and transgendered people are getting more exposure, but the fight for equal rights is far from over.
This past week, Miss Universe Canada was banned from participating in the finals because she is a transsexual. Jenna Talackova was born male, but says she felt like a girl by the time she was four. She started hormone therapy at age fourteen and at nineteen, she had sexual reassignment surgery.
But, officials had a problem with all this. The fine print is, according to the pageant’s national director Denis Davila, that all contestants must be a “naturally born female.” So Talackova was disqualified.
Talackova has said this is a human rights issues and she is not giving up the battle just yet. An online petition has been signed by over 25,000 people to let her compete in the pageant. Talackova is looking for a lawyer and refusing interviews until she gets one.
What do you think? Should a transsexual be allowed to participate in a beauty pageant? I remember what a big deal it was in 1984 when Vanessa Williams became the first African American to be crowned Miss America. Do you think we will ever see a transsexual crowned Miss anything?