On Sunday, former President Donald Trump declared that “God created two genders, male and female,” however almost a decade earlier he had risen in prominence for overturning a rule of the Miss Universe organization, which at the time he owned, to allow a transgender woman to compete in 2012.
In 2012, Trump’s fame among the LGBTQ+ community had risen, after he overturned a decision made by the Miss Universe organization, which he owned from 1996 to 2015, to disqualify Canadian model Jenna Talackova, then 23, from the competition because she was not a “naturally born” female.
At the time Trump, who had reversed the decision to block Talackova for the competition, had claimed that the organization needed to respect the laws of Canada and allow Talackova to compete in her national competition for the Miss Universe Canada title. The winner of the national title would then move forward and compete in the global competition.
In a video on April 4, 2012, Trump had said that they would “let her in” and that they would “see what happens.” As Trump had noted there were 58 girls competing for the title Miss Canada and it would be “very interesting to see what happens.” He had also noted that it is not going to be easy for her to win Miss Universe as everyone “wants to be Miss Universe.”
Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-attorney, had noted that Talackova would be allowed to compete so long as she met the “standards of legal gender recognition requirements of Canada” which at the time she did.
Days later, the organization announced that starting from 2013, transgender women would be allowed to compete in all its competitions.
