Miss Italy beauty pageant bans transgender women from competing, saying contestants must be 'woman from birth'

• The organizer of the Miss Italy pageant said contestants must be a "woman from birth."
• It comes just weeks after a transgender woman was crowned Miss Netherlands for the first time.

A representative of the Miss Italy beauty pageant said contestants must be "woman from birth," just weeks after Rikkie Kollé made history as the first transgender woman to be crowned Miss Netherlands.

Miss Italy's official patron, Patrizia Mirigliani, told Radio Cusano earlier this month that she considered transgender inclusivity efforts made by other beauty pageants to be "a bit absurd," according to Italian outlet Il Primato Nazionale.

Mirigliani has been involved with Miss Italy since the 1980s, following in the footsteps of her father Enzo Mirigliani, who began leading the pageant in 1959.

"Lately, beauty pageants have been trying to make headlines by also using strategies that I think are a bit absurd," Mirigliani said. "Ever since it was born, my contest has included in its regulations the specification that one must be a woman from birth."

"Probably because, even then, it was expected that beauty could undergo modifications, or that women could undergo modifications, or that men could become women," she added.

Representatives for the Miss Italy pageant did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.

Mirigliani's stance on transgender contestants comes after Rikkie Kollé made headlines after becoming the first transgender woman crowned as Miss Netherlands. She will go on to represent the Netherlands at the 72nd Miss Universe competition, which is set to be held in El Salvador later this year.

Miss Netherlands and Kollé announced the victory on social media, where they shared a photo of Kollé after she was crowned by current Miss Universe R'Bonney Gabriel.

The image's caption said the 22-year-old shone throughout the competition and made great progress.

Kollé wrote that she was proud to show the transgender community "it can be done."

"And yes I am trans woman and I am happy to share my story, but I am also Rikkie," she added. "I did this in my own strength and enjoyed every moment."

Kollé will be the second transgender person to compete in a Miss Universe competition after Angela Ponce. Ponce represented her home country of Spain in the international pageant in 2018.