Miss Universe Iceland had announced that it is open for registration and looking for a representative, but, the news was taken in a slightly offensive manner when the requirements to qualify as a contender were revealed.

One of the requirements qualifications stated that: ‘The applicant must be physically certified as a female by an Icelandic doctor.’

This caught the eye of an art student in Iceland, who tweeted the screenshot of the requirements and asked, “Does this mean that trans women cannot compete in Miss Universe Iceland?” Activists on the LGBT side of the debate were angered and offended by the clear 

Alda Villiljós, the chairman of Trans Iceland, criticized the fact that one needs to be “medically certified as a woman.” Alda Villiljós said it is an outdated attitude towards trans people.

(Photo Credits - Miss Universe Iceland Facebook Official)

“When in the process is it possible to physically confirm an individual is a woman?” Alda Villiljós asked, “Is it when you produce more estrogens than testosterone? Is it when you’ve gone through gender reassignment surgery? Where do you draw the line? Is there one at all?”

Though people have supported Alda and dissed the pageant for the decision, there is a group that is supporting the pageant as well due to obvious reasons. The reasons being nothing negative, but the sole fact that the rules need to be changed on an international level so that a trans woman if she wins the pageant, could go on and represent the country in international pageants as well.

Pageant director Manuela Ósk cleared the air around the issue and comforted both the sides of the debate.

“I have never received an application from a trans woman, so I think so far there hasn’t been any interest in participating,” Ósk said. “Nobody has ever even sent me an inquiry about this, but absolutely, this is something that needs to be reviewed in the future.”

“You need to be a woman, that is the basic condition,” Ósk said. “You may have been born male, but to participate you must have gone through the process of gender reassignment.”

“You can always offend someone, and if people want to take it in this way, there is nothing I or anyone else can change.” Ósk further added, “These are rules that Miss Universe Organization requires and though I would like to invite everyone to participate in the pageant here in Iceland but then it would eliminate participation in Miss Universe and then there would be no point.”

“Once you weren’t allowed to participate at all if you had been born a man,” Ósk said. “As I said, rules have been slowly changing, so hopefully at some point, there won’t be any limit to join in.”

Have you filled the Miss Universe Iceland form yet?