As the GOP further escalates its war on the transgender community, Republicans may want to look at a groundbreaking decision that their de facto leader made a decade ago—when Donald Trump rewrote the rules to the Miss Universe pageant so that transgender women could compete.
Of course, like so many of Trump’s decisions, this one is laced with spite, and perhaps some family favoritism.
Ten years ago, in April 2012, Trump briefly became something of an LGBTQ icon—albeit a deeply conflicted and flawed one—when he unilaterally overturned his own pageant’s rules to allow 23-year-old model Jenna Talackova to vie for the title of Miss Canada.
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The move drew worldwide media attention, landing Trump at the center of a discussion where he at times appeared uncomfortable, and spat a number of bigoted transphobic insults. Still, in social media posts, videos, and multiple interviews, Trump unfailingly referred to Talackova with her preferred “she” and “her” pronouns.
In a vlog posted on April 4, 2012, Trump said, “We let her in. We’ll see what happens. Maybe she’ll do well, maybe she won’t. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens. If for some reason she should win, everybody wants to be Miss Universe. I don’t think it’s going to be easy.” (The video has since been made private, but is archived here).
The real estate baron said he had based his decision on the laws of both Canada and the United States, which he characterized as “very clear.”
When another Miss Canada resigned in protest, Trump trashed the dropout.
“She suffers from a thing called loser’s remorse. She lost,” he said. “If you look at her compared to the people that were in the top 15, you would understand why she’s not in the top 15.”
Talackova, who began hormone therapy at age 14 and underwent gender-affirming surgery five years later, was identified as a woman in government-issued documents, including her birth certificate.
Shortly afterwards, following discussions between the pageant and gay rights advocacy group GLAAD, Miss Universe scrapped its “naturally born female” requirement.
But the Trump Organization didn’t suddenly become a banner carrier for the transgender community. Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, made clear in an initial statement that “nobody is capitulating,” and Trump himself later floated a nonsensical and bigoted conspiracy theory about Talackova’s candidacy.
In a later statement on behalf of the Trump Organization, however, Cohen said Trump “acted swiftly and appropriately,” and that “pageant rules have been modernized to ensure this type of issue does not occur again.”
“We hope Jenna will now turn her focus to preparing for the upcoming competition. Like all the contestants, Mr. Trump wishes Jenna the best of luck in her quest for the crown,” that statement said.
Talackova ultimately lost the Miss Canada pageant, but was named “Miss Congeniality.”
Despite the media attention and the cultural significance at the time, Trump—who at one point also claimed he “couldn’t care less” if Talackova won—seemed more preoccupied with besting longtime rivals.
One of them could have been President Barack Obama, whom Trump was at the time bashing for his energy policy specifically as it related to Canada. The other was Talackova’s own lawyer—controversial women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who, like Trump, is known for hyping media attention around her causes.
Allred quickly put public pressure on Trump not just to allow her client to compete, but to make a broad change and toss the pageant’s rule entirely. Trump did so, but took pains to tell the world that Allred had nothing to do with it, all while hurling transphobic and misogynistic insults—not at Talackova, but at her attorney.
“I made my decision to allow Jenna Talackova to participate in Miss Universe Canada two days before Gloria Allred got involved,” Trump tweeted on April 9. “I hope Jenna is not paying Gloria a fee other than all the free publicity that Gloria is getting for no reason. Gloria actually hurts Jenna---- I do nothing for Gloria, who in my opinion is a third rate lawyer. Is Gloria a man or a woman????---- few men would know the answer to that one.”
Miss Universe president Paula Shugart echoed one of Trump’s jabs at Allred in her own statement.
“We want to give credit where credit is due, and the decision to include transgender women in our beauty competitions is a result of our ongoing discussions with GLAAD and not Jenna’s legal representation, which if anything delayed the process,” the statement said.
But Trump didn’t treat Talackova any better than Allred.
In a primetime ABC News 20/20 interview, Trump took a shot at his own contestant, under the guise of a vague conspiracy theory about her gender.
“I looked at her name and somebody brought this up to me: ‘Jennatal,’ those are the first letters of her name,” Trump told host Barbara Walters. “It’s Jennatal,” he repeated.
By way of illustration, Trump had scrawled the letters “J E N N A T A L” on a white piece of paper, which he held up for the camera.
“And I’m saying to myself, ‘Hmmm that’s strange. Could there be an ulterior motive?’” he wondered.
The next day, he doubled down in a post on a long-format Twitter platform, wondering if there was “something a little strange going on here.”
Trump didn’t say what the “ulterior motive” may be, and the theory doesn’t really make sense.
Another theory might hold up better: Family favoritism.
Talackova, it turns out, bears a striking resemblance to Trump’s own daughter, Ivanka Trump.
The similarities were noted in memes and across social media.
“OMG! These two #models could've positively been #twinsisters! Can you tell Ivanka Trump from Jenna Talackova?” the modeling company Model Gateway asked on Facebook.
The parallel didn’t escape Katie Couric, who spoke with Trump about the issue on Good Morning America. She tweeted, “I thought Jenna Talackova was beautiful & looked a little like Ivanka Trump. What do u think of that whole controversy?” (GMA retweeted her post.)
Although Talackova didn’t win Miss Canada, her fight paved the way for other transgender women. Six years later, Angela Ponce won Miss Spain, becoming the first transgender Miss Universe contestant. Last year, Kataluna Enriquez (Miss Nevada) became the first transgender candidate to qualify for the Miss USA pageant, the stepping stone to Miss Universe.
Trump, however, broke the other way.
Some of the first acts of his administration targeted the transgender community, like scrubbing federal guidance about protecting transgender students under Title IX, dropping a legal challenge against anti-transgender legislation in North Carolina, and, most infamously, proclaiming in a July, 2017, tweet that “the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.” The hits kept coming through 2020, when the administration rolled back Obama-era rules that protected homeless transgender people against discrimination when applying for shelter.
This January, Trump vowed to ban transgender women from sports if re-elected in 2024. While it’s not clear how he would make good on that threat as president, three dozen Republican state legislatures considered bills to do so last year; 18 states have so far passed them into law.
Anti-transgender extremism has hardened in key Republican arteries like Florida and Texas, where parents of transgender children now fear for their family’s safety. The governors of both states have moved to deny gender-affirming care to young people who wish to transition, and Texas GOP leaders see it as a “winning issue.”
The reactionary movement contrasts with the spirit in the air after Trump’s Miss Universe reversal.
After successful discussions with the Trump Organization and the pageant, the GLAAD advocacy group released a statement celebrating the step forward.
“At a time when transgender people are still routinely denied equal opportunities in housing, employment and medical care, today’s decision is in line with the growing levels of public support for transgender people across the country,” the statement said.
Last year, a federal judge upended that progress, ruling that pageants could, in fact, bar participants who weren’t “natural born females.”
