A district judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Miss USA over their rule requiring that contestants be biological women.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman tossed the lawsuit brought against the pageant company by trans activist Anita Noelle Green.
The pageant asserted that they have the right to pursue their mission of promoting “natural-born” females. The judge agreed, saying that they have freedom of association.
“I view it as an association that cannot under the Constitution be required to allow plaintiff to participate in what defendant says is a contradiction of that message,” Mosman ruled.
Green said that though they lost, they’re still happy they could draw attention to the cause — you know, that under discussed cause that seemingly every major corporation is tweeting about.
“This case brought awareness to an issue many people were and still are unaware of and that issue is that discrimination against transgender people is still actively happening in the private and public sector even within the pageant circuit,” Green said in a statement.
Oregon Live reports that Attorney John T. Kaempf, who represented Miss United States of America LLC, said that for more diversity in pageants — people can create their own.
“My client is not anti-transgender but it just wants to be able to hold a pageant that is only for biological females,” Kaempf said. “Contrary to what people might think, my client, the pageant, is a supporter of diversity. It believes there can be a Miss Black USA pageant, a Miss Native American pageant or a transgender pageant.”