It’s a common discretion to fear or be apprehensive about something or someone unknown in humans. Thus, when Angela Ponce Camacho was crowned Miss Universe Spain in 2018, she stirred up real controversies. Being a transgender woman, Angela was to represent her county at Miss Universe 2018 which had not happened in its 67 year old history then.

While Angela made her way to Miss Universe competition, she faced immense backlash and hatred for being how she was and challenging the conventional mindset that had existed since decades in the pageantry. And more so, she did it at the most prestigious pageant in the world. What baffled the people even more was that a transgender woman could just come up in a competition laid down for ‘natural-born’-if it can be put that way-women.

The root cause, in my opinion, is still the lack of awareness and ignorance on the part of audience to understand that human sexuality is progressive in a way that it’s ever-evolving and everyone has a right to express themselves in any way they want to. Even though the situation has changed drastically over the years as Miss Universe 2019 also saw a openly gay delegate from Myanmar represent her country with absolute dedication, it surely was Angela who broke the status quo in the pageantry.

Being the object of ridicule for months as she prepared for her international stint, Angela did not give up on her dream and pursued it with even more zeal making it her goal to get over the orthodox and buttoned-down thinking of people.  The spectrum of sexuality does not just lay down men and women in their simple boxes and to try to even negotiate inside of it seems absurd especially now when the society has evolved so much in respect to the communities that lay outside of the said spectrum.

Without getting into the science of it, it is easy to understand why and how Angela has broken the status quo with her idiosyncrasies. Her love for her country and to just stand on the Miss Universe stage with Spain’s flag hoisting high, it has been a dream come true for the beauty queen. And most important of all, her participation has made a slight ark in the mindset that previously would not just accept this decision with respect to the competition.

It is definitely time to accept things that seemed absurd to the generation previous to ours because deviation from the commonality of set ground rules is the base of evolution and growth. After this, one can only hope that the major international pageants inspire more openness and acceptance towards the same.