Female beauty pageants are allowed to exclude transgender women, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has ruled. The case stems from a complaint filed by Anita Green, a transgender contestant in several Miss United States of America pageants.
After competing in Miss USA pageants in Montana, Oregon, and Nevada, Green asked the pageant’s national director if she knew Green was transgender. The director said she had not known, and that Green would be excluded from further competition, since the pageant is only open to “natural born female(s).”
Green sued, a district court ruled in favor of the pageant, and Green appealed. Now, a panel of 9th Circuit judges has also ruled in favor of Miss USA. In a November 2 decision, the judges held that pageant rules did not violate the Oregon Public Accommodations Act (OPAA) and that its decision to exclude transgender women was protected by the First Amendment.
[Interesting decision by the panel generally regarded as the most politically progressive circuit in the nation. — Ed]
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