Transgender Mexican Wins

Mexican contestant Valentina Fluchaire was crowned Miss International Queen in a beauty pageant for transgender women held in Pattaya, Thailand, on Saturday.

Valentina Fluchaire

The native of Colima state received the crown from the previous year’s winner, Jazell Barbie Royale, from the United States.

“I have no words. … I have worked so hard to get here. I don’t want to get sentimental, I don’t want to cry,” said Fluchaire, who added that she will wear the crown with “much respect and responsibility” and that she will work to benefit transgender people and other social causes.

Caitlyn Jenner's Transgender Influence?

To be certain, Ms. Jenner's polarizing influence on the trans community has been well documented. But, how has she fared outside of the LGBTQ world?

I found a fairly decent post on the subject to share with all of you. It's written by Patrick Miller, an associate professor of political science at the University of Kansas. Here is an excerpt:

"The Politics of Being 'Cait': Caitlyn Jenner, Transphobia, and Parasocial Contact Effects on Transgender-Related Political Attitudes" appears in the current issue of American Politics Research.

"The entire question of celebrities in politics is vastly understudied," Miller said.

"Politicians seek their endorsement. Brands obviously pay them a lot of money to endorse their products. We have the sense that they're important but—especially in political science—we have not appreciated enough just how important they can be."

That importance is reflected in the opinions of Americans who followed Jenner when she revealed her transgender identity in 2015. Examining how age, partisanship and transphobia impacted engagement with the Jenner story, Miller found it shaped attitudes toward transgender rights in unexpected ways.

Caitlyn Jenner

"What's interesting about the Jenner case is the people who she seemed to influence are the older, more conservative type—those who probably became vested in her back when she was Bruce Jenner competing in the Olympics and appearing on Wheaties boxes," said Miller, who co-authored the article with KU's Don Haider-Markel along with Andrew Flores, Daniel Lewis, Barry Tadlock and Jami Taylor.

Conducted in 2015 shortly after Jenner came out, Miller's survey reveals that among the respondents who followed her story, those who were both older and more transphobic were less likely to see it as reflecting negative social trends compared to younger people who were equally anti-transgender. And this same group was more likely to support pro-transgender policies if they interpreted Jenner's story less negatively.

"She didn't appear to have any effect on the younger people who might have been more attuned to "Keeping Up with the Kardashians." So, in that sense, her audience seemed rather durable, despite her rebranding over time," he said."

Find more on this post here.

From Russia With Love

Tatler has become Russia’s first magazine to feature a transgender woman on its cover, the society magazine announced as its April issue hit newsstands Wednesday.

The Kazakh-born, Paris- and Moscow-based socialite Natalia Maximova came out to her Instagram followers in December. In the interview with Tatler’s chief editor, Maximova said she “never had the need to come out” until she witnessed and intervened in a confrontational scene in Belgium.

“I understood then that I have no right not to defend others. I have no right to stay silent,” she said.

Tatler, a Condé Nast publication in Russian circulation since 2008, said it hoped Maximova’s interview “will give hope to those who need it.”

“I want to dedicate [the cover] to those who fight, to those who love and to those who made their choices or [are] on their way to [making] a decision,” Maximova wrote.

At least half a dozen major magazines around the world have featured transgender models on their covers.

For more, go here.