A federal appellate court says a national beauty pageant has a First Amendment right to exclude a transgender woman from competing, because including her could interfere with the message the pageant has said it wants to send about 'what it means to be a woman.”.
This undated photo provided by Michelle Stevens shows Anita Green, a transgender woman who sued the Miss United States of America pageant after she said the organization denied her entry into its Oregon pageant because she is transgender. The 9th U.S. Circuit ruled on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, that forcing the pageant to include transgender contestants would illegally infringe on the organization's free speech right to express what it considers to be an ideal vision of womanhood.
Green sued, contending the organization was violating a state law that makes it illegal to deny public accommodations to people based on their sex or gender identity. “As with theater, cinema, or the Super Bowl halftime show, beauty pageants combine speech with live performances such as music and dancing to express a message,” Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote for the majority. “And while the content of that message varies from pageant to pageant, it is commonly understood that beauty pageants are generally designed to express the ‘ideal vision of American womanhood.
Forcing the pageant to include transgender contestant would amount to “compelled speech,” — a violation of the First Amendment — and the fact that the pageant was a business that engages in commerce wasn't enough to overcome that free speech right, the panel found. “The Ninth Circuit’s conclusion says it all: “Green asks to use the power of the state to force Miss United States of America to express a message contrary to what it desires to express. The First Amendment says no,”” Kaempf said.
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