Miss Netherlands 2023 Rikkie Kollé.
Rikkie Valerie Kollé became the first transgender woman to be hailed Miss Netherlands last Saturday. She will represent the Netherlands in the Miss Universe pageant later this year.
“I did it!” Kollé wrote in a joyous Instagram post following her historic win at the AFAS Theater in Leusden. “I made my community proud and showed it can be done.”
As the first transgender woman to be crowned Miss Netherlands, Kollé said she hoped to raise awareness for transgender health care in her home country and be a role model to young queer people. The Breda native said she chose to apply to become Miss Netherlands because pageants offered her a chance to tell her story.
“I’m going to be an open book,” Kollé said in February in an Instagram post detailing her childhood experiences and an update on her gender-transition surgery.
Despite Kollé’s victory, she said she had received a lot of online abuse and insults since Saturday, including those directed at her close family members.
Kollé is the second Dutch trans woman to reach the Miss Netherlands finals. Solange Dekker, a finalist from last year’s competition, became the first Dutch Miss International Queen 2023 last month, an annual pageant for trans women.
“We’re really looking for the most beautiful woman in the Netherlands,” said Monica van Ee, a pageant judge who chose Ms. Kollé this weekend. She also serves as the national director of Miss Netherlands.
Kollé will also be the second trans woman in a Miss Universe competition. Spain’s Angela Ponce was a finalist in 2018, breaking countless barriers surrounding the beauty pageant world.
“My Miss Universe superfan conversion was sitting in the front row while Angela Ponce, the first trans Miss Universe Spain, walked the runway for the first time,” said Anne Jakrajutatip, the owner of the parent company of Miss Universe who is a trans woman herself. “Trans women are women — and we are here to celebrate women.”
Kollé is preparing for the Miss Universe finals in El Salvador.
里基·瓦莱丽·科莱
荷兰小姐选美参赛选手创造历史，成为首位获得桂冠的跨性别女性
里基·瓦莱丽·科莱成为上周六被赞誉为荷兰小姐的首位跨性别女性。她将代表荷兰参加今年晚些时候举行的环球小姐选美比赛。
“我做到了！”科莱在莱斯登的AFAS剧院夺冠后在Instagram上兴高采烈地写道：“我让我的社群感到自豪，也展示了这是可能的。”
作为荷兰小姐的首位跨性别女性，科莱表示她希望提高人们对荷兰的跨性别医疗保健问题的关注，并成为年轻同志人群的榜样。这位布雷达的居民表示，她选择申请成为荷兰小姐是因为选美比赛给了她一个机会来讲述自己的故事。
“我将成为一本敞开的书，”科莱在2月份的Instagram帖子中这样说，详细描述了她的童年经历和性别转变手术的最新进展。
尽管科莱获胜，但她表示自从周六以来，她收到了许多在线辱骂和侮辱，包括对她亲近的家人的攻击。
科莱是第二位进入荷兰小姐决赛的荷兰跨性别女性。去年比赛的决赛选手索朗娇克（Solange Dekker）上个月成为第一个荷兰国际女皇2023，这是一年一度为跨性别女性举办的选美比赛。
“我们真的在寻找荷兰最美丽的女人，”莫妮卡·范·伊（Monica van Ee）说，她是这个周末选择科莱的选美评委会成员，也是荷兰小姐的全国总监。
科莱还将成为参加环球小姐比赛的第二位跨性别女性。西班牙的安吉拉·庞斯（Angela Ponce）在2018年成为决赛选手，打破了围绕选美比赛界的无数障碍。
“当第一位跨性别的西班牙环球小姐安吉拉·庞斯首次走台时，我就成为了环球小姐的超级粉丝，”安妮·贾克拉居塔普（Anne Jakrajutatip）说道，她是环球小姐的母公司的业主，也是一位跨性别女性。“跨性别女性就是女性，我们在这里庆祝女性。”
科莱正在为在萨尔瓦多举行的环球小姐决赛做准备。
Alice Tao 整理报道
