Miss San Francisco could make history in Miss California pageant

SCREEN CAPTURE / MONROE LACE

Monroe Lace was crowned Miss San Francisco on June 9.

Monroe Lace, the current Miss San Francisco, could make history this week in the Miss California competition. If crowned, the Asian American could become the first openly transgender titleholder in the pageant.

Lace, 25, was named Miss San Francisco earlier this month. She is the first transgender local winner the organization's 99-year history.

“I feel like my job as Miss San Francisco is to show people that I'm just like everyone else,” Lace told the San Francisco Standard.

The winner of Miss California will go on to represent the state in the Miss America contest.

Lace said she had to overcome her fears about entering the Miss San Francisco competition as a trans woman.

"I told myself if it wasn't going to be me, then who? And if not now, then when?" she told the Bay Area Reporter. "So I just went in being my whole authentic self and I won."

Lace grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area of Chinese and Filipino parents. She left home in 2019 because of their unwillingness to accept her gender.

"I would rather be homeless and loved than be in a home that didn't love me. So I packed my belongings in a single suitcase and left in the middle of night," she told the Bay Area Reporter.

The organizers of this year's pageant, which will be held in Visalia, an agricultural city in the state's conservative Central Valley. The winner will be crowned July 1, but in the meantime, Californians will be able to vote for the contestant for the Peoples Choice award.

In 2021, Lace was assaulted at gunpoint in San Francisco. "I think after my sexual assault I knew that service was important and something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I felt becoming Miss San Francisco was an opportunity for me to give back to the city that has welcomed me with open arms."

Indeed, she has made public safety a key part of her platform. “My platform is public safety. It’s not ‘police,’” Lace told the Standard. “It’s about awareness, talking about my own assault; it’s about education and legislation.”

"My platform is all about supporting survivors and rape victims through education, legislation, and awareness," she told the Standard. "I hope to use my year of service to share my personal story, teach children about good character and about being their most authentic selves and advocate for legislation that keeps the city and state safe."

If Lace wins the $20,000 scholarship offered by the contest, she said she would like to attend law school.

“I'm here to show America that I am just like everyone else and that, in fact, I am a role model in the community,” Lace said. “I hope, through my actions as a San Francisco, I can help change the narrative and the story of what people see trans people as.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

Breaking Barriers: Trans Filipino American crowned Miss Nevada USA

Miss Nevada USA, Kataluna Enriquez.

When Kataluna Enriquez was crowned as Miss Nevada USA last Sunday, she made history in more ways than one. Not only was she the first Filipino American to win the title, but she is also the first transgender woman to win the crown.

The 27-year-old beauty queen will also become the first transgender woman to compete in the 2021 Miss USA pageant.

After winning the Nevada pageant, the Las Vegas resident posted on social media: "Huge thank you to everyone who supported me from day one," she wrote. "My community, you are always in my heart. My win is our win. We just made history. Happy pride."

Her victory won praise from the LGBTQ community.

"Kataluna Enriquez being crowned Miss Nevada is a huge win for trans visibility and sends a powerful, but simple message to the world: trans women are women," GLAAD's Head of Talent Anthony, Allen Ramos, said in a statement..

"I'm so proud of Kataluna's trailblazing win especially as a fellow trans Filipina sister," trans model and LGBTQ activist Geena Rocero shared in a statement with E! News. "This win will open doors for all pageant system to continuously advocate for the inclusion of trans women in all pageants not just in America but all over the world."

A 2011 graduate of San Leandro High School in the San Francisco Bay Area, Enriquez began her  modeling career the following year wining several pageants, including rMiss Hayward in the Miss California contest in 2020.

Prior to winning the Miss Nevada USA title, in May of 2021, she also won the crown for Miss Silver State USA.

"I wanted to share my story and present that I was more than just a body," Enriquez  said. "With pageantry, people think it is only about beauty. But it’s how you present yourself, what you advocate."

Washington Spirit player Komi Yokohama comes out as transgender

WASHINGTON SPIRIT

Kumi Yokyama of the Washington Spirit professional soccer team.

Washington Spirit forward Kumi Yokoyama came out as transgender in a video interview on former Japan teammate Yūki Nagasato's YouTube channel.

“I’ve dated several women over the years but I had to stay closeted in Japan,” Yokoyama said in the interview, which was translated by The Japan Times.

“In Japan I’d always be asked if I had a boyfriend, but (in the United States) I’m asked if I have a boyfriend or girlfriend," said Yokoyama, who uses they/them pronouns.

Yokoyama becomes one of the highest-profile Japanese athletes to come out as transgender, saying living in the United States and Germany played a major factor in going public.

“I’ve dated several women over the years but I had to stay closeted in Japan,” Yokoyama said in the interview, which was translated by The Japan Times. “In Japan I’d always be asked if I had a boyfriend, but [in the United States] I’m asked if I have a boyfriend or girlfriend.

“When my girlfriend said there was no reason for me to stay closeted, it really hit me. Coming out wasn’t something I was enthusiastic about, but if I think about my life going forward, it would be harder to live closeted so I found the courage to come out.” 

The 27-year-old said they had top surgery to remove breast tissue seven years ago without hormonal treatments, as taking hormones would have put them at risk of failing doping tests. Yokoyama said they are planning to undergo more gender-affirming procedures once they retire.

“Lately the word ‘LGBTQ’ has become more commonly known in Japan and been covered by the media, but people in my position aren’t able to raise our voices and talk about it,” Yokoyama said. “Japan may be a small country, but if all of us speak up together then we can help raise awareness.”

This season, Yokoyama has played sparingly for the Washington Spirit. The team expressed its support for the player. "We support and are so proud of you Kumi," the team said. "Thank you for showing the world it's ok to embrace who you are!"

U.S. Marine, Killer of transgender Filipina, remains in prison; not eligible for early release

Joseph Pemberton, left, remains in prison for the murder of Jennifer Laude, right. 

An appeals court ruled that the U.S. Marine convicted in the 2014 killing of a transgender Filipina will remain in jail pending her family's appeal, according to the Manila newspaper Star Tribune.

The Regional Trial Court Branch 74′s ordered on Sept. 1 for the early release of Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton drew protests from the family and lawyers of Jennifer Laude, who was found dead in a motel room in Olongapo city in 2014.

“The light penalty imposed on Pemberton proves that despite the president’s independent foreign policy, Americans continue to have the status of conquering colonials in our country,” said government spokesman Harry Roque.

Pemberton was in the 6th year of his 10-year sentence. His lawyer said that the early release of her client was based on credits given for good behavior while behind bars.

But on Thursday (Sept. 3), Presidential spokesman Roque, who used to serve as one of the Laude family’s lawyers, said government officials cannot work on Pemberton’s release until the court has ruled on the appeal of the Laude family. Roque said the government is preparing a separate appeal of its own.

The Laude family's attorney said that Pemberton cannot invoke the equal protection clause because the (Philippine Supreme Court) ruled that there is a substantial difference between foreign military armed forces in the country and other people accused of crimes.

Pemberton was in the Philppines as part of the U.S. military contingent conducting joint military U.S.-Philippine exercises. He met Laude at a bar in Olongapo, a city known for its nightlife outside Subic Bay, a former U.S. Navy base.

Laude was later found dead, her head slumped in a toilet bowl in a motel room, where witnesses said she and Pemberton had checked in. According to a witness, Pemberton said he choked Laude after discovering she was transgender.

Laude's murder renewed calls for ending the U.S.-Philippine military agreements, which had been simmering among Filipinos for decades.

The murder of Jennifer Laude, with all of its political ramifications and questions about the LGBTQ community's status in the Philippines, was made into an award-winning documentary, Call Her Ganda, by PJ Raval

“Laude’s death personifies the death of Philippine sovereignty,” said Roque.

Transgender student sues private school

Portrait of the Shah-Brar family. Nikki is second from left.

AN 8-YEAR OLD Asian/American girl is suing her school because the school wouldn't allow her to be herself.

The family of Nikki Shah-Brar, is suing Heritage Oak Private Education, a private school in Yorba Linda, Calif. because her family doesn't think the school did enough to accommodate transgender child.

“We would not have done it if she didn’t support it,” said her mother Priya Shah. “This was a family decision. We thought we had to stand up for our child who was standing up for who she was. This is not something we do lightly.”
What makes the suit unusual is that it accuses the school violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act, California’s law banning discrimination in public accommodations. Though California courts have found that the law does not apply to private religiously affiliated schools, Heritage Oak is a private for-profit school. 

According to Public Counsel attorney Kathryn Eidmann, Heritage Oak is a for-profit, non-religious school. "That means that it's a business institution and is treated like any other business institution in California and California does not tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, religion or gender identity by any business institution."

In their complaint, the family argues, “The Unruh Act applies to a for-profit school such as Heritage Oak and its parent company Nobel Learning Communities because Heritage Oak and Nobel Learning Communities are business establishments within the meaning of the statute.” 

Her parents, Shah and Jaspret Brar, encouraged Nikki to let their daughter express her gender identity and come out as a transgender girl at school.“

School administrators said that Nikki could grow her hair out, Brar told BuzzFeed News, recounting the school's rules for his daughter in third grade. “But they said no girls bathroom, no female pronouns, no girls name, and no girls uniform.”

By imposing those conditions, the suit alleges, Heritage Oak Private Education and its parent company, Nobel Learning Communities, illegally discriminated against the girl on the basis of gender identity in a business, engaged in fraudulent business practices, and intentionally inflicted emotional harm.

When the Shah-Brar family told the school in the middle of the 2016 school year about Nikki's desire to transition, it first appeared the school would accommodate the child.

When Jan. 2017 rolled around, Phyllis Cygan, the executive director of Heritage Oak, allegedly told Nikki's parents that “Nikki would have to wear the boy’s uniform, use a boy’s name and pronouns, and use the staff restroom,” the complaint says. “She said that Heritage Oak is a ‘conservative institution’ that focuses on ‘character education’ and that allowing Nikki to transition would ‘create an imbalance in our environment.’”

“This is not a trend, it’s not a fad, it’s not a phase,” Shah added. “This is who she is at her very core, and if you can’t learn and grow at school, then you can’t be who you are. We stand with Nikki and we want to do our small part to make sure other transgender kids don’t have the same trauma.”

Nikki, now in the third grade, is now attending a different school.

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