Trump’s 2012 Decision Comes Back To Haunt Him
Former President Donald Trump gained popularity within the LGBTQ community by making an exception to the regulations of his Miss Universe organization in 2012, which enabled a transgender woman to compete. However, on Sunday, he declared that “God created two genders, male and female.”
According to Fox, more than ten years ago, Trump made a well-known decision to reverse a prior ruling by the Miss Universe organization, which he possessed from 1996 to 2015. This ruling disqualified a Canadian model named Jenna Talackova, who was 23 years old at the time, due to her not being a “naturally born” female.
Trump intervened and overturned the decision, stating that his organization would abide by Canadian laws and permit Talackova to participate in the Miss Universe Canada pageant. The winner of this competition would then advance to the worldwide broadcast.
In a video from 2012, Trump says on video, “We let her in. We’ll see what happens. Maybe she’ll do well, maybe she won’t. You have 58 different girls trying to be Miss Canada. It’ll be very interesting to see what happens. If for some reason she should win, well, then she has to win the Miss Universe contest. Everybody wants to be Miss Universe. I don’t think it’s going to be easy.”
During that time, Michael Cohen was Trump’s lawyer, who later got convicted in 2018 on charges related to hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Currently, Trump also faces charges related to the same issue in New York City. Cohen had mentioned that the Miss Universe organization was not yielding to any particular group when Trump overturned their decision to allow Jenna Talackova to compete.
“As long as she meets the standards of legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, which we understand that she does, Jenna Talackova is free to compete in the 2012 Miss Universe Canada pageant,” Cohen said in 2012.
After a few days of discussions with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the Miss Universe organization declared a change in policy. They stated that beginning in 2013, transgender women could participate in all of their competitions.
“We appreciate that [Trump] and his team responded swiftly and appropriately,” a GLAAD spokesperson said.
