United States of America Pageants is facing a lawsuit from a transgender woman – otherwise known as a man – which alleges that the corporation’s rule restricting competition to “natural born” females constitutes gender-identity discrimination.
Anita Noelle Green of Clackamas, Ore. won the title of 2019 Miss Earth Elite Oregon (no word on what kind of competition he faced in that contest) and competed in the 2018 Miss Montana pageant.
He signed up to compete in the Miss United States of America pageant last year but the application was rejected, the Portland Oregonian reports.
“This policy, intentionally designed to exclude the specific class to which plaintiff belongs – transgender females – is discriminatory because it denied plaintiff the full and equal advantages and privileges of defendant’s services in violation of Oregon’s public accommodations law,’’ the lawsuit claims.
Filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, the suit alleges that a pageant representative “friended’’ Green on Facebook and encouraged him via message to take part in Oregon’s 2019 pageant. Once the pageant discovered Green was transgender, it turned down his application.
The Nevada-based pageant company is private, but the suit maintains that it should be following Oregon public accommodation laws.
Green has competed in several pageants, saying it “affirms her identity as a woman,’’ contributes to his “sense of femininity and beauty,’’ helps boost his confidence and public speaking ability and gives him the chance to serve as an example to others, the suit says.
