Transgender pageant winner stripped of title after being deemed not transgender enough

The Scottish winner of a national transgender beauty pageant has had her title stripped from her as she is “not transgender enough”. Jai Dara Latto, from Walkerburn, Peeblesshire, was named Miss Transgender UK in a ceremony in London last September.

But Rachael Bailey, who runs the pageant, has now removed Jai’s title and is set to crown another beauty queen, Daisy Bell, the winner after seeing video footage she claims proves Ms Latto is not living as a woman full-time. Jai, however, insists she is transgender and says she has started hormone treatment to become biologically female.
The video, which was taken as part of a documentary about the pageant to be screened by the BBC next month, reportedly shows Jai backstage at the Miss Transgender event in Glasgow wearing a pair of boxer shorts. Ms Bailey said: “When Jai entered the competition, she said she was full-time and she is not – she is a drag queen. The documentary showed her living as a gay male in her boxer shorts.
“Underwear is very important to transgender females – one of the first thing people do is change their underwear” Ms Latto, 23, said she had severed all ties with the pageant, which she claims forces transgender women into a female “stereotype” of long hair, tight clothes and lacy underwear.
 She added: “I am transgender. It seems to me that Rachael has based [her claims] on her subjective opinion from having viewed the documentary.”