‘Remarkable’: Transgender woman creates history after being crowned Miss Nevada
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Kataluna Enriquez was crowned Miss Silver State earlier this year. |
History was made for the LGBTQ community in Nevada over the weekend.
On Sunday, Kataluna Enriquez beat out 21 other contestants to win the crown of Miss Nevada USA. With the title, Enriquez, 27, becomes the first transgender woman to win a competition in the pageant's history.
“I didn’t have the easiest journey in life,” she told local Fox affiliate KVVU. “It was a struggle for a moment. I struggled with physical and sexual abuse. I struggled with mental health.”
“I didn’t have much growing up,” she continued. “I didn’t have support. But I’m still able to thrive, and I’m still able to survive and become a trailblazer for many.”
In a separate interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal published Monday, Enriquez said she first competed in a transgender-focused pageant in 2016 after years of working as a model. It wasn’t until last year, however, that she joined a pageant in which she competed against cisgender women.
“I wanted to share my story and present that I was more than just a body,” she explained. “With pageantry, people think it is only about beauty. But it’s how you present yourself, what you advocate for, what you’ve done and the goals you have.”
Anthony Allen Ramos, who is GLAAD’s head of talent, told HuffPost in a statement that Enriquez’s milestone “sends a powerful, but simple message to the world: trans women are women.”
Now Enriquez begins the long process of preparing for the Miss USA pageant, which will be held Nov. 29 in Oklahoma.
That same day, Enriquez expressed similar sentiments on Instagram. The fact that her victory coincided with LGBTQ Pride Month in June was not lost on her.
My community, you are always in my heart, My win is our win. We just made history. Happy pride.
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