Miss United States of America Beauty Pageant Can Exclude Transgender Contestants, Court Rules

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Miss United States of America LLC cannot be forced to allow transgender women to compete in its pageants, according to a new U.S. appeals court ruling.

The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the beauty pageant company can legally exclude contestants that are not "natural born" females under their First Amendment rights, per the ruling.

The complaint was originally filed by Anita Green of Oregon, who claimed she faced discrimination when she was informed that she was not eligible to compete in Miss United States of America pageants because she is a transgender woman.

Green argued that the company's decision was in violation of an anti-discrimination law in Oregon. But in Wednesday's 2-1 ruling, the three-judge panel sided with Miss United States of America.

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"Miss United States of America expresses its message in part through whom it chooses as its contestants, and the First Amendment affords it the right to do so," Judge Lawrence VanDyke said in Wednesday's ruling.

VanDyke was appointed by former President Donald Trump, according to Reuters.

Christiana Kiefer, Senior Counsel for ADF, which represented Miss United States of America LLC, applauded the court's decision in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

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"Ignoring the biological reality that men and women are different harms women and their opportunities to compete, excel, and win — from female athletes sidelined in their own sports to women competing in beauty pageants on the national stage," Kiefer says.

Green's attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

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Green filed her lawsuit against Miss United States of America LLC in 2019 after her application was rejected, claiming that it was based on her gender identity, according to The Hill.

Miss United States of America, which is separate from the Miss USA pageants, requires contestants to meet a number of criteria before competing, including that contestants be "a natural born female," per the court.

(Kataluna Enriquez, a transgender woman who was crowned Miss Nevada, became the first openly transgender Miss USA contestant in 2021.)

In an 2019 interview with NPR, Green said she believes forbidding transgender women from competing the Miss United States of America pageants is "very arbitrary."

"I don't think someone shouldn't be allowed to compete simply because they are transgender," Green explained, adding, "Transgender women are equal to cisgender women."

A federal judge dismissed Green's suit in 2021, according to Reuters, leading to her recent appeal.

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However, Judge Carlos Bea, appointed by former Republican President George W. Bush, and Van Dyke agreed that the pageant's expression "would nonetheless be fundamentally altered," which they determined is a violation of their First Amendment rights.

"The Pageant would not be able to communicate 'the celebration of biological women' if it were forced to allow Green to participate," Van Dyke said in Wednesday's ruling.