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Asia-Pacific

Student, 19, wins Thai transgender beauty pageant

By Chen Di (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-11 14:43

When Siripahawarin Mongkhonphanmani went to compete in this year's Miss Tiffany's Universe pageant in Thailand's seaside resort Pattaya, she considered it a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The 25-year-old Thai transgender contestant, whose nickname is Jen, owns a beauty salon in Bangkok. Besides Thai, she can speak English and Chinese. She had finished the male-to-female gender reassignment surgeries and, in her own words, she had become "99-percent woman." To be a beauty queen at Tiffany's pageant was her dream.

In Miss Tiffany's Universe 2010 pageant for Thai contestants' final session, held on the evening of May 7 at Tiffany's Theatre, Pattaya, there were 27 other transgender contestants who shared the same dream with Jen. The crown was to be bestowed on the kingdom's most beautiful and elegant male-to-female transvestite, transsexual or transgendered woman.

Student, 19, wins Thai transgender beauty pageant

Champion Nalada Thamthanakom (C) poses with first runner-up Chanya Denfanapapol (R) and second runner-up Numpath Prasochok after winning the annual Miss Tiffany's Universe 2010 transvestite contest in the beach resort town of Pattaya, Thailand on May 7, 2010.[Chen Di/chinadaily.com.cn]

After several rounds of stage parades and a Q&A session, 19-year-old Bangkok University student Nalada Thamthanakom was crowned Miss Tiffany 2010 and received the prize of 100,000 baht ($3,100) and a Honda Jazz car.

Miss Tiffany's Universe pageant is an annual event organized by Tiffany's Theatre in Pattaya. This year is its 13th anniversary. Besides promoting tourism in Thailand, its aim also includes enhancing equality in Thai society, to create human rights awareness among international communities, and to build a bridge between the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the rest of the world. Revenue generated from the contest are donated to HIV-infected children and create awareness of the disease.

This year's competition theme, "I am what I am," was well-received by those contestants who had the courage to choose alternative lifestyles and were proud to present them to the public. Of this year's 28 contestants, 75 percent of them were students pursuing their bachelor's degrees in Thailand's prominent universities such as Mahidol University, Bangkok University and Khonkaen University. Their majors or professions varied from safety trainer for firefighting to film director.

Thai people are relatively tolerant of the lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender (LBGT) community and that may be a factor that encourages people to freely choose their own lifestyles.