We won’t have a girl like us competing in the Miss USA 2013 pageant next month because Kylan Wenzel unfortunately didn’t win the Miss California USA pageant.
I’ll still have somebody else to root for besides the women of color and my Lone Star state representative when I watch the pageant on June 16 and see who Miss USA 2012 Nana Meriwether crowns as her successor.
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My friends in the intersex community are excited to learn that Miss Michigan USA Jaclyn Shultz is one of the 51 women vying for the Miss USA crown.
Jaclyn has [an intersex] condition that affects one in 4500 newborn girls called Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome. MRKH affects the reproductive system and causes the vagina and uterus to be underdeveloped or absent Women with MRKH syndrome have a female chromosome pattern (46,XX), functioning ovaries, conventionally developed external female external genitalia and breast and pubic hair development.
In Jaclyn’s case, as she mentions in her Miss USA profile, “Jaclyn is the proud spokeswoman for A Beautiful You MRKH Foundation. Since she was born without a uterus, this non-profit is close to her heart.”
She has been working to spread awareness about MRKH and provide support to girls and women across the globe who are diagnosed with it.
As Claudia Actorino said in the opening sentence of her post about Jaclyn, ‘intersex bodies are beautiful.’
I wish Jaclyn the best of luck in the upcoming Miss USA 2013 pageant and continued success in her ongoing mission of spreading awareness about MRKH.
H/T Claudia Actorino- Full Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome
[alert type=”info”]Cross-posted from TransGriot[/alert]