During the opening of the new season of Teatro en Corto, a theater in Mexico City, Lupita Jones, winner of the Miss Universe Beauty Contest of 1991 and current leader of the Mexicana Universal Beauty Contest, claimed to be against transgender women competing in this sort of event. She denied having anything in common with transgender women, claiming that “they are not the same.”

“As head of Miss Universe in Mexico, I have to abide by the rules of the organization, but at a personal level, I disagree, because I don’t think we are under equal conditions. A woman that was born as one will never be like a transgender woman. Biologically, they are not the same,” she added.

The model’s statements were broadcast last Tuesday at a social event in which the organization announced that Wendy Chávez would become the new face of Mexicana Universal Durango. Jones commented that she was not against the struggle for transgender identity, but she explained that the contest “is not meant for them.”

Against the background of these claims, municipal authorities and members of the LGBT+ Community confirmed the death of a transgender woman called Itzel Aidana, who had previously uploaded a video on her Facebook account in which she responded to Lupita Jones’ declarations against the participation of transgender women in beauty contests.

According to the LGBT+ Community in Zacatecas, although the video addressed to Lupita Jones was the last thing she posted on her Facebook account, there is no way to sustain the claim that her apparent suicide was in any way related to the video.



dm