The final round of the world-famous transgender beauty pageant Miss International Queen is set to take place tonight at Tiffany's Show Theatre in Pattaya. Twenty-eight beauty queens from all over the world gather in Thailand for a chance to win the coveted title this year.
Representing Thailand is Rinrada "Yoshi" Thurapan (who won another competition, Miss Tiffany, last year). We will have to wait and see if Rinrada will be able to hold on to the crown for Thailand for another year since Jiratchaya "Mo" Sirimongkolnawin won the title in 2017.
The first round of the competition was held at Aksara Theatre King Power in Bangkok last Friday, in which we saw the ladies competing their talents and presenting their national costumes. Nguyen Huong Giang, a beauty queen from Vietnam, won Best Talent Quest for her singing and dancing performance -- with Michel Epalza Betancourt from Venezuela and Marianna Melo from Italy as runners-up.
Miss International Queen, dubbed the world's largest beauty pageant for transgender women, has been held annually in Pattaya since 2004. In its inaugural year, actress and Asian superstar Treechada "Poyd" Malayaporn won the title. Since then, three more beauty queens from Thailand have snatched the crown, in 2007, 2011 and 2017, making it the country with the most wins. Thailand is followed by the Philippines, with wins in 2012 and 2015.
Despite being world-famous for transgender women -- both in terms of beauty and advanced medical procedures for transitioning -- and being home to the largest transgender beauty pageant in the world, Thailand doesn't legally recognise the third gender, nor does it allow them marriage equality.
Miss International Queen's final round tonight will feature the swimsuit and evening-gown contests.
Witness the crowning moment tonight at 10pm on GMM25, www.gmm25.com and facebook.com/MissInternationalQueen.
