The first transgender woman to participate in a pageant in the United States was Kataluna Enriquez in 2021. Bella Bautista will now compete for the title of Miss Georgia USA, becoming the first openly.
Transgender woman to do so. According to NBC station WAFF48, Bautista, who hails from Cartersville, Georgia, is presently Miss Buckhead USA, but she has larger dreams.
“This could really be a reality for me,” I thought. One day, this dream could come true. And I may be the first just because there hasn’t been one in Georgia,” Bautista said.
According to Bautista, the public has found the process difficult to accept, particularly on social media. In less than 30 minutes, Bautista claimed,
“I received over a thousand comments from people saying that I shouldn’t be here, that I’m just a man, that I’m mentally ill, and that I don’t belong in this pageant.”
Bautista, a cheerleader, voiced her opinion when the Georgia legislature decided to proceed with prohibiting transgender people from participating in women’s sports.
