Singaporean Transgender Woman Is 1st Runner-Up At World’s Largest Transgender Pageant, Miss International Queen

Singaporean Qatrisha Zairyah clinched the first runner-up position at Miss International Queen 2023, a pageant considered to be the world’s largest pageant for transgender women, held on June 24 in Pattaya.

Speaking to 8Days, the 32-year-old fashion advisor admits that she “didn’t expect to go this far” and had only hoped to place among the top 11 out of 22 contestants. “I wasn’t prepared to go on stage for Top 6, much less Top 3. I was so shocked when they called out ‘Singapore’. My mind was literally freaking out!” she recalls with a laugh.

Solange Dekker from the Netherlands was crowned the winner of Miss International Queen 2023, while Melony Munro from the United States finished third. The competition was launched in 2004 with the aim of uniting individuals worldwide who identify as transgender, according to organisers.

Qatrisha also took part in two other pageants for transgender women last year — Miss Trans Star International in Barcelona and Miss Equality World in Bali — and was third runner-up for both competitions. 

She tells 8Days that prior to the Miss International Queen finale, contestants were in Thailand for close to two weeks for the competition and were also scored in several pre-judging rounds during this time (“it was very intense!”). That included an in-depth interview with judges, during which Qatrisha, who underwent gender reassignment surgery seven years ago, opened up about her trans journey.

“I’m married and so I told them about my personal story. I told [the judges] that one good thing about Singapore is that when we’ve done our post-op, we are able to [legally] change our gender to female,” shares Qatrisha, who subsequently got married and applied for a HDB flat with her husband, a 31-year-old non-destructive testing inspector.

She lets on that “it was not an easy journey” for her and her family. “It took time for them to actually accept me ’cos we are Muslim. But my mum now understands me. And my dad, when he visited me at my workplace and [understood that I'm] not doing anything illegal, slowly, they were able to accept me. I also give them some money every month for expenses, so to them, they know that they don’t have to worry about me,” she explains.

Today, Qatrisha has the acceptance and support not just from her family, but also her friends, who sponsored her flights to Thailand for the pageant.

But she still had to fork out about $5,000 to take part in MIQ 2023, which went into paying for registration fees and buying a number of outfits for the pageant, among others. Not that she would have it any other way.

“I think this is the right time for me to share my story. For the next generation, this is a good stepping stone for them to actually try and be visible. Some people, when they think of transwomen, the first thing that comes to mind is that we are prostitutes,” she avers.

“I want to change this and break this barrier. It's not just about the pageant, it’s also about creating awareness and being the voice for our community.”

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