Miss Myanmar Becomes The First-Ever Openly Gay Miss Universe Contestant
Miss Myanmar has made history by becoming the first-ever openly gay Miss Universe pageant contestant.
21-year-old Swe Zin Htet decided to come out just a few days ago even though homosexuality is still a crime in her country, also called Bruma.
Talking to ‘People’ magazine miss Myanmar said: “I have that platform that, if I say that I’m a lesbian, it will have a big impact on the LGBTQ community back in Burma.”
“The difficult thing is that in Burma, LGBTQ people are not accepted,” she continues, “they are looked down on by other people and are being discriminated against.”
Htet hopes to help the LGBT+ community and change anti-LGBT+ attitudes. “It’s like I just started a new chapter in life,” she says.
She also said that it was “kind of difficult” to even accept her same-sex attraction growing up even to herself, “but after a period of time I felt I was a lesbian and kind of accepted it.”
Five years ago she came out to her parents. About the experience she said: “At first, they were mad. They didn’t accept me. But later, when they found out more about the LGBTQ community, they started to accept me.”
After coming out, Htet has been getting a lot of support from other Miss Universe contestants, pageant organisers, the LGBT+ community in Bruma and “also all over the world.”
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