Federal court says beauty pageant has First Amendment right to exclude trans people

A federal court has ruled that the Miss United States of America pageant has a right to ban transgender women from competing.

In a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled that requiring the pageant to be inclusive to trans women would be a violation of its free speech.

The lawsuit came about when trans woman Anita Green – who has competed in many other major pageants – sued the Miss United States of America pageant for refusing to let her compete to become Miss Oregon.

When Green prepared to compete in the Miss Oregon contest in 2019, a Miss United States of America Pageants event, she learned that her application was being rescinded and her entry fee was being returned, with their director, Tanice Smith, telling Green that “this is a natural pageant.”

“I felt as though I was being invalidated…I felt as though the organization was saying…

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