Miss Fabulous Laos 2022, a beauty pageant competition that allowed transgender women to participate, has been discontinued permanently.
Miss Fabulous Laos 2022 has made a statement on its social media page that all activities related to the competition will be suspended from Friday.
The announcement comes after a notice was issued by the office of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Youth Union in August which stated that beauty pageants must follow the regulations set by the union.
Going further, the union has now banned transgender people from entering any beauty pageants, whether domestically or abroad, and including pageants meant only for transgender participants.
This new rule has received considerable backlash from social media.
Miss Fabulous Laos 2022 hadn’t wanted to exclude transgender women from participating in the pageant but the union has declined their request to go ahead.
The organizers were issued a notice that prohibited Miss Fabulous Laos 2022 from going ahead with the competition, but contestants were permitted to participate in other activities and events.
Miss Fabulous Laos has now put out an optimistic message on its Facebook page which hopes for a law that would guarantee members of the LGBTQ+ community equal rights in society.
