Model Rikkie Valerie Kolle, who is a man who has transitioned to present as female, won the Miss Netherlands beauty pageant competition Saturday.
“I DID IT,” Kolle posted on Instagram. “It’s unreal, but I get to call myself [Miss Netherland] 2023. It was an educational and beautiful journey… I’m so proud and happy I can’t even describe it. Making my community proud and showing it can be done.” (RELATED: Transgender Athlete Says He Intentionally Won Female Competition To ‘Stir Controversy’ About Fairness In Sports)
“And yes I’m trans and I want to share my story but I’m also Rikkie and that’s what matters to me. Did this on my own and loved every moment of it.”
Kolle is the first transgender-identified person to win the beauty pageant. Kolle will now compete in the Miss Universe pageant in El Salvador.
A transgender woman has been crowned Miss Netherlands for the first time in the beauty pageant’s history and is now set to compete for the Miss Universe title.
Rikkie Valerie Kolle, 22, made history after she won the competition on Sunday.#UTVNews pic.twitter.com/KyrPB1vB9H
— UTV Ghana (@utvghana) July 10, 2023
Kataluna Enriquez, who is transgender, won Miss Nevada in 2021.
“My win is our win,” the model posted. “We just made history. Happy pride.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2022 that the Miss United States of America pageant can prohibit transgender participants from competing.
“As with theater, cinema or the Super Bowl halftime show, beauty pageants combine speech with live performances such as music and dancing to express a message,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote in the opinion.