First transgender woman compete in Miss Universe

Miss Spain, Angela Ponce didn’t manage to make it to the final round at the 2018 Miss Universe Beauty Pageant. The event was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Unfortunately, we did not see her go through to the round of 20 – the final round. A separate wild card was available so that 5 more women could enter the final round. But Ponce wasn’t on this list either and was not crowned as Miss Universe. Although she didn’t make it to the finals, her very presence in the competition is a victory for tens of thousands of individuals across the globe.

Angela Ponce scripted history on Sunday as she was the very first transgender woman to ever be present at a pageant of this caliber. Earlier in July, Ponce has spoken with the press regarding her platform. She claimed that she was going to use her spot in the worldwide show in order to throw light on the situation of suicide among transgender teenagers.

Angela Ponce told the press this, “If my going through all this contributes to the world moving a little step forward, then that’s a personal crown that will always accompany me.” When the top 25 finalists had given their opening statements, the co-host Ashley Graham went on to narrate a video about this 27-year-old beauty queen. She said, “Angela Ponce is everything you’d expect from the reigning Miss Universe. She’s smart, driven and beautiful. Her path has been anything but ordinary and nothing short of extraordinary.” Ponce then took a solo walk down the runway and the audience immediately erupted in loud cheers. Miss Span spoke to TIME in November and revealed that she had competed in Miss World 2015. However, on the day of the competition she learned that she couldn’t go any further as the rules prohibited transgender women from winning.” This had broken her completely. But Ponce went on to say “I had to go on and person and it felt horrible. But after I got to the Miss Universe final selections, Miss World changes their rules too. I changed the rules.”