Twenty-one-year-old Raika Ferraz (shown on left) Monday won the title of “Miss T Brazil” in Rio. Twenty-eight contestants competed for the title during the country's second annual pageant. Ferraz won a sex change operation in Thailand but said she would not undergo full sex reassignment surgery. “I'll get my nose done and a bit of botox,” Ferraz told gay news site Neto Lucon. “I also think I'm a little bit fat.” “What matters is that you feel happy with who you are, you know,” Ferraz told the AFP. “If you're a transsexual who hasn't had surgery and you like yourself that way, well that's what matters. And what also matters is respecting individuals.”
Marjorie Marchi of the Association of Transvestites and Transsexuals of Rio told the news agency that the pageant also serves to increase awareness. “We use beauty as a political strategy, so that these people can benefit from policies that could change the sad and degrading context that transvestites and transsexuals still live in in most South American countries,” Marchi said. Ferraz will represent Brazil at next year's Miss International Queen 2014 in Thailand.
