Panyakham rewrites history: Thai transgender beauty queens face off against American beauties?

Miss International Queen Thailand 2024 Saruda Panyakham "caused a stir" when participating in a beauty contest for pure women in the US: Bold decision or historical turning point?

The beauty world has been in turmoil in recent days with surprising news: Transgender beauty queen Saruda Panyakham, reigning Miss International Queen Thailand 2024, has officially registered to participate in Miss Massachusetts USA 2025, a beauty pageant for women in the US.

This information quickly spread across international beauty forums, because if she wins Miss Massachusetts USA 2025, Saruda will be closer to a ticket to Miss USA, one of the largest beauty pageants in the US and the official door to the Miss Universe dream. This is the playground known as the "most fierce on the planet", where the beauties are carefully selected from millions of women around the world.

Remember, just a few months ago, the name Saruda Panyakham made the online community "laugh out loud" with the moment she rolled on the floor, clapping her hands excitedly when her name was announced as the winner of Miss International Queen Thailand 2024. The image of the queen continuously covering her face, laughing and crying, expressing extreme happiness quickly became a widely spread meme. Not only fans, even the 1st runner-up standing next to her could not hide her surprise, her eyes wide open at this "unique" reaction.

But behind those funny moments is a journey of relentless effort. Before being crowned, Saruda had "fought" 5 times in the Miss International Queen Thailand contest, a long journey proving her perseverance and passion for beauty contests.

In 2024, Saruda Panyakham will represent Thailand at Miss International Queen – a prestigious international beauty pageant for transgender people. Here, she will compete directly with Tuong San – representative of Vietnam. Although she did not win the highest crown, Saruda still finished as the first runner-up, leaving a strong impression thanks to her outstanding personality, professional performance skills and captivating stage presence.

Notably, when the halo from the crown had not yet faded, Saruda surprised the beauty community with her bold decision to "change direction": participating in Miss Massachusetts USA 2025 - a contest under the Miss USA system, for cisgender women (biological women). This is rare, because not many transgender beauties dare to enter the playground which is considered the "traditional territory" of pure women.

However, what has attracted the most attention is that Saruda chose to compete in the United States - a country with the most rigorous beauty pageant system in the world, where criteria for appearance, image and message are all closely scrutinized, especially for transgender contestants. Although Miss USA and Miss Universe have made strides towards gender diversity in recent years, the fact that a transgender beauty queen like Saruda directly registered to compete is still a bold move, with many risks but also full of potential to create a historical turning point.

This was clearly not a spontaneous decision, but a strategically calculated move. Miss Universe, the most prestigious competition on the planet, has changed its rules, allowing transgender women to participate if they have completed a legal gender transition in their country. This opens new doors for beauties like Saruda.

Before her, many other transgender beauties also made their mark at Miss Universe such as Angela Ponce representing Spain in 2018, or Marina Machete representing Portugal in 2023. Although they could not touch the crown, they have contributed significantly to changing the world's view of diverse beauty and tolerance in beauty pageants.

With extensive experience, good stage skills and strong support from the community, Saruda is considered a strong competitor at Miss Massachusetts USA 2025. Having competed many times, she has a solid stage presence, flexible response ability and confident demeanor, which are extremely important factors in American-style beauty pageants.

The fact that Miss Saruda Panyakham, a transgender beauty queen, participated in a beauty pageant for cisgender women in the US is a testament to the spirit of daring to cross the line and the desire for equality. Her journey is not only for the crown, but also an inspiration for those who dare to live their truth, dare to dream and affirm their own values. Can she become the first transgender person to be crowned Miss USA, or even Miss Universe?

MIQ 2024: Tuong San won all the secondary prizes and semi-finals but thought she would be crowned Minh Lợi21:31:03 22/08/2024The semi-finals of Miss International Queen 2024 took place on the afternoon of August 22. Tuong San overwhelmed 20 competitors, confidently winning the two most important prizes in the competition.