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There She Is … - Los Angeles' transgender beauty pageants - Brief Article

THE TRANSGENDER BEAUTY PAGEANT THAT DETERMINES THE OTHER MISS UNIVERSE

ASIA VITALE, A PETITE 31-YEAR-old Filipina with floppy black hair that she often tosses back from her eyes, riffles through bags of purple fabric and canisters of glitter. She is designing a beauty pageant costume for Kimberly Carver, who stands nearby in a halter top and jeans, obediently holding the dowels that will steady her winglike robe.

"Kimberly is Miss Mongolia," says Vitale. She hangs a string of gold beads around Carver's neck.

"Oh, girl," Carver says, skimming her hand down the beads.

"We did research online about Mongolian costumes. What were the materials they use again?" Vitale asks.

"Burlap," Carver sighs, "and beaver fur."

Rejecting such unglamorous inspiration, Vitale has sketched a sleek lavender gown and purple robe, topped by a wide, comb-shaped crown. The ensemble doesn't resemble anything you'd see on the streets of Ulaanbaatar, but neither, really, does Carver. A fair-skinned brunette, she has never even visited Mongolia. As she competes in an upcoming transgender pageant, her chief challenge won't be ethnic identity but feminine beauty, and for that she has enlisted the help of L.A. designer, model, and five-time pageant winner Vitale.

Los Angeles is host to almost two dozen transgender pageants each year, held in clubs, ballrooms, and theaters, and among them, Queen of the Universe reigns. Originally known as Miss Universe, it was founded in 1970 by a former shoe salesperson named La Rey, a luminary among L.A.'s homosexuals, who performed in private clubs when female impersonation was still illegal in California.

Vitale will compete as Miss India in this year's Queen of the Universe pageant, at the New Otani Hotel on November 11. She began participating in the late 1990s, after she bounced back from a crisis over her own gender identity. "Mainstream America still sees men dressing as women as a deviation from the norm, and it's really difficult for the girls to accept that," she says.

Vitale and Carver are meeting at the downtown offices of the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team, where Vitale works. Part of her job at the transgender desk is to coach contestants like Carver, because, she says, competing helps the girls build self-esteem and presentation skills. Transgenderists often end up living double lives, working as men by day and dressing up to go out at night. Pageants offer a more supportive, less sexually charged atmosphere than the club scene. Walking the runway has taught her how to celebrate her light-framed, girlish physicality without the permanent effects of a sex change, which some transsexuals undergo. "Just by showing up you get approval from people," she says. "It's addicting."

Over time Queen of the Universe has been stormed by the police and sued by the real Miss Universe pageant for co-opting its name, but its audiences have grown to more than 500, and up to 40 contestants now compete each year. In 1997 La Rey passed the producer mantle to the 1991 winner, Karina Samala, who added a much-dreaded swimsuit competition to the pageant, which already had costume, cocktail dress, and interview rounds. She also began attracting more entrants from other countries, and although there are still plenty of incongruously pale Miss Mongolias and tall, black Miss Icelands, the competition has become international. The Thai contestants took first place the past two years.

"Whoever did Miss Thailand's costume must have carpal tunnel now," Vitale says of last year's winner, who shimmered across the stage in an intricately sequined silver mermaid outfit. On average contestants spend $500 to $1,000 for costumes, although Vitale insists she works on a "low budget." Raiding downtown's fashion district for deals on rhinestones and gold lama, Vitale often contrasts opulent skirts with tight-fitting, jewel-encrusted bustiers ("I like to use glue guns and wires") that show off her midriff and delicate neck.

As she sorts through Carvers costume materials, Vitale shares a couple of tips: Buy a lighter foundation than your skin tone, since layers cause the makeup to darken, and employ a pair of properly placed, stitched-together shoulder pads if you are "hip and ass impaired." f has had to master the tricks of temporary enhancement, because lately more pageant winners have been in the midst of the "transition," their breasts and hips augmented by far more than cotton padding. (Contestants must have male genitalia to enter the pageants, but all other hormone treatments and surgeries are fair game.) Although Vitale once considered this option, full sex changes are not for the squeamish. "I want to experience life as the self that I was born with," she says.

She disappears into an empty office and returns with shoulder pads situated beneath her jeans. "I learned tiffs from a transgender porn star," she tells Carver and puts her hands on her waist, clearly pleased with the new curves. "I asked her, `You take it off anyway, why do you need it.?' and she said, `Why not look good when you're just walking around?"