Singaporean transgender woman is 1st Runner-Up at world’s largest transgender pageant, Miss International Queen

https://www.todayonline.com/8days/singaporean-transgender-woman-1st-runner-worlds-largest-transgender-pageant-miss-international-queen-2203356

Singaporean Qatrisha Zairyah clinched the first runner-up position at Miss International Queen 2023, a pageant considered to be the world’s largest pageant for transgender women, held on June 24 in Pattaya.

Speaking to 8Days, the 32-year-old fashion advisor admits that she “didn’t expect to go this far” and had only hoped to place among the top 11 out of 22 contestants. “I wasn’t prepared to go on stage for Top 6, much less Top 3. I was so shocked when they called out ‘Singapore’. My mind was literally freaking out!” she recalls with a laugh.

“I’m married and so I told them about my personal story. I told [the judges] that one good thing about Singapore is that when we’ve done our post-op, we are able to [legally] change our gender to female,” shares Qatrisha, who subsequently got married and applied for a HDB flat with her husband, a 31-year-old non-destructive testing inspector.

She lets on that “it was not an easy journey” for her and her family. “It took time for them to actually accept me ’cos we are Muslim. But my mum now understands me. And my dad, when he visited me at my workplace and [understood that I'm] not doing anything illegal, slowly, they were able to accept me . I also give them some money every month for expenses, so to them, they know that they don’t have to worry about me,” she explains.

“I think this is the right time for me to share my story. For the next generation, this is a good stepping stone for them to actually try and be visible. Some people, when they think of transwomen, the first thing that comes to mind is that we are prostitutes,” she avers.

“I want to change this and break this barrier. It's not just about the pageant, it’s also about creating awareness and being the voice for our community.”

the future is now chudbu @X (formerly chiobu) its time for you to join the RIGHT SIDE OF she/herSTORY

https://old.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/14ogs14/singaporean_transgender_woman_is_1st_runnerup_at/

wow she’s gorgeous!!!! even more so than a biological girl like me 😆

Hey just a heads up this is kind of a backhanded compliment cuz it’s implying that trans women are typically less attractive than cis women. Ik you have no bad intentions ofc but just be mindful of the implication, its better to just compliment without adding the caveat behind it :)

edit: Expected the downmarseys but i’m not gonna reply to or argue with anyone cuz imo it’s just one of those things where you get it or you don’t and there’s no way I can convince you if you disagree. Yes I understand that some of yall feel sentiments of annoyance or resentment at what yall feel is woke culture, and I have experienced those feelings before as well. However I also have seen several (or many) actual trans people who have pointed out that comments like these feel backhanded and I see why they feel that way, so I was just pointing it out because I believe that it’s a very very easy thing to correct in order to be more respectful towards an already oppressed demographic (whether u actually agree if its backhanded or not). With regards to why I and many others think it’s backhanded, I stated in another comment that it has a similar implication to saying things like “youre beautiful for an (insert race) person”. If you agree that this statement is backhanded then I don’t see why you would disagree when it pertains to trans people. If you think the above statement is a completely fine and appropriate compliment then 🤷‍♀️

where did the cis women part even come from???

“even more so than a biological woman” implies that you would expect a biological woman to be more attractive lol. anyway i expected the downmarseys, probably gonna be a decade more before the reddit population can understand the nuance behind this lmao

edit: another way of understanding this is it’s similar to compliments like “you’re pretty for an indian girl” etc

Agree with you on both counts — about the backhanded compliment (though the poster meant no harm, and was much more accepting of the correction than the other redditors), and how far the average SG Redditor is from being a good ally (or even being willing to be more aware)

Okay I really support this. She's truly good looking too not like the ones from the west who look like Shrek

People who participate in beauty pageants tend not to look like Shrek, regardless of which country they come from.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11430725/Teen-Miss-Americas-transgender-local-title-holder-critics-blast-woke-competition.html

welllll there’s a lot to unpack there , not least how it’s sad that winning a beauty contest is some women’s only route to success. Though that pageant’s criteria was that contestants “are judged on their 'their achievements in scholastic, aptitude, talent, character, community service and poise'.” - so appearance wasn’t supposed to be a factor in the first place, and perhaps the judges also thought that a trans woman would be more in need of the opportunities that came with the award. Or they were trolling and wanted her to get drowned in the hate they must have known would be coming.

(edit: she does seem pretty accomplished.)

But I must say that there were similar complaints over Jenna Talackova, who was conventionally attractive; she also transitioned young, where her features were all her own and not the result of cosmetic surgery.

weirdly, it was Trump who overruled the ban.