Angela Ponce with her crown (PAGEANT ZONE/YouTube)

A transgender woman has become the first to win Miss Universe Spain.

Ángela Ponce, 26, beat off competition from 22 other finalists to triumph at the contest in Tarragona, six years after Miss Universe was opened to trans contestants.

Ponce will now go on to represent Spain at this year’s worldwide Miss Universe event in Philippines.

After taking the crown on June 29 – right at the end of Pride Month – the groundbreaking beauty queen said: “I am very happy with what all this means.

“I want to give a lesson to the world of tolerance and respect towards oneself and towards others,” she added.

Ponce previously took part in 2015 Miss World Spain as the Cadiz representative, but failed to win that competition.

At the time, she said that “the problem lies in the education we received from childhood, we are not educated for diversity.”

Speaking about growing up, the champion said: “The hardest thing in the whole process is to see how my body did not develop as I wanted or needed.

“I was training as something that was not and could not do anything,” she continued, adding: “I care about being happy. To be me.”

After losing the 2015 contest, Ponce said: “I have the regional crown on my head.

“And I will keep fighting to make us seen, to make us heard and to demonstrate that I am already a queen with my own crown.”

Seems like the Miss Universe Spain judges agreed.

Last year, former Miss Universe winner Pia Wurtzbach apologised after saying in an interview that she wanted a gay child to dress her and do her make-up.

The Filipino model, who was crowned Miss Universe 2015, said on TV: “I really believe they would take care of you when you grow old. This is not to say that you would not be taken care of if your child is straight, but based on my experience, a gay person has an extraordinary way of taking care of you.

“I want to experience having someone who is excited to dress me up, to do my makeup, to take care of me. He would be like my best friend.

“I imagine my child would be my best friend, and he’s gay.”

At the same Miss Universe event which Wurtzbach won, 20-year-old Austrian competitor Amina Dagi used a custom dress and make-up to transform herself into Conchita Wurst, the iconic drag diva who took the Eurovision crown for Austria in 2014.

In 2016, Miss Galaxy beauty pageant finalist Jossy Yendall, 29, claimed that she was disqualified from the contest for being trans.