Nigerian model becomes the first trans contestant in a beauty pageant

Transgender Nigerian woman Veso Golden Oke, age 25, is competing in a beauty pageant in Ghana alongside other women.

Veso Golden Oke. Photo Source: Facebook

By Mike Daemon

In Africa, trans people are subjected to frequent abuse and discrimination on the basis of their gender identity. Yet Oke, a model who lives openly as a trans woman in Ghana, has been allowed by the organizers to compete in the 2019 edition of the Miss Europe Continental, occurring this month in Ghana.

She is now officially recognized as the first trans woman allowed to openly compete in a mainstream beauty pageant in Africa. If she wins the competition in Ghana, then she’ll be chosen to represent Ghana at the Miss Europe Continental, which will take place in Italy.

Veso Golden Oke [at left] poses before the start of the Miss Europe Continental Ghana 2019. Photo source: Facebook.

Many people who do not understand what it means to be trans think that Oke is gay, but in a previous interview with NoStringsNG, Oke removed any doubts about that:

“I have never been gay.  I am a woman from childhood. I have always thought, dressed and walked as a girl and sometimes when I was much younger I prayed before going to bed that by morning God should transform me into a girl,” she said.