Court Rules Miss USA Pageant Can Exclude Trans Women

An Oregon trans woman sued to be allowed to enter the Miss USA Pageant. The Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ruled that pageants are allowed to discriminate based on their 1st Amendement rights.

by Evan Urquhart

(this is a stock photo, to our knowledge the model is not trans herself)

Beauty pageants do not have to allow trans women to compete, according to a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Anita Green, a trans woman from Oregon, sued the Miss USA pageant after she was not allowed to compete last year, and Wednesday she lost her appeal in a split decision.

The attitude in the right wing press is jubilant about this result, and the story is being widely covered there today. We chose a story from the right wing culture war and sports blog, OutKick, to serve as an example of the tone.

As is typical of stories posted after a right wing victory on trans issues, the focus remains on other dangers (even when those dangers are, er, near misses? actually also wins?). They expound on things that could happen, or in plain terms, fantasies. Right wing press outlets avoid elevating voices that simply celebrate a victory as a historic moment or a sign of good things to come. In contrast, a story in the mainstream press would more typically quote a representative from the winning side expressing satisfaction, vindication, or joy, perhaps with a quote from the losing side to balance the picture out.