(LifeSiteNews) — A gender-confused man has won the “Miss Netherlands” beauty pageant.
On Sunday, July 9, a man who presents himself as a woman and goes by the name “Rikkie Valerie” Kolle was crowned the new Miss Netherlands as the first “transgender woman” and is now set to compete in the Miss Universe 2023 contest.
Kolle will be the second man competing in the Miss Universe pageant after a Spanish man called “Angela” Ponce participated in the female contest in 2018.
“It’s unreal but I get to call myself @missnederland 2023,” Kolle wrote on Instagram after winning the competition. “It was an educational and wonderful journey, my year can’t go wrong. I am so proud and happy I can’t describe it. I made my community proud and showed that it can be done.”
“And yes I am a trans woman and I want to share my story, but I am also Rikkie and that is what matters to me. I did this in my own strength and enjoyed every moment.”
The Miss Universe pageant business, which was at one point owned by former U.S. President Donald Trump, was acquired by a man who poses as a woman named “Anne” Jakkapong Jakrajutatip in 2022.
Jakrajutatip is a Thai transgender activist, businessman, and CEO of the JKN Global Group. He had two children produced for him via surrogacy.
Ironically, Jakrajutatip has vowed to “continue the pageant’s legacy of women empowerment and evolve the brand for the next generation.”
While the owner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant believes that he is empowering women by letting men compete in the contest, many critics have called out the practice as contributing to the ideological erasure of women.
“Yet more rampant misogyny as a man wins Miss Netherlands. Utterly ridiculous!” Martin Daubney, British journalist and former MEP wrote on Twitter.
“Journalists who indulge this fantasy should be ashamed. Every use of ‘she’ or ‘her’ erases women, one word at a time. Absurd misogyny,” he added.
Conservative Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek stated that “A man just won ‘Miss Netherlands’ 2023.”
“Considering the fact that we live in a post-Truth world, I wasn’t even expecting anything else. It’s all so predictable and unoriginal at this point,” she wrote.
READ: The media’s relentless promotion of transgender ideology is eroding public trust