Midori Monet’s win is historic — but the fight for trans justice is just beginning

When Midori Monet, a Black trans woman, was crowned Miss International Queen 2025, the world cheered. But that applause must not quiet our questions. This isn’t simply a pageant victory — it’s a moment that unwraps the contradictions of representation, respectability politics, and the violence trans women face daily.

In Thailand, under the lights of Tiffany’s Show Theatre, Monet stood among finalists from Cuba, Vietnam, and beyond.

She cried as she received her crown: 

I feel I am living out my ancestors’ wildest dreams … representing my entire community.

But her tears also echo a deeper truth: visibility doesn’t alone dismantle oppression.

Representation doesn’t equal liberation, even with Midori Monet’s win

It’s tempting to celebrate this as progress — and in many ways it is. A Black trans woman taking centre stage in a global beauty pageant is historic. It affirms that Black trans women belong in spaces of recognition and glamour too often denied to them.

But representation alone is not transformation. A single crowned queen doesn’t erase a system that kills, excludes, and erases trans women, especially Black trans women.

What does it say that a trans pageant is international, glittery, and televised — while trans women still struggle for basic health care, housing, employment, and safety? Midori Monet’s win sits at the intersection of visibility and contradiction. The stage is a controlled spotlight; the streets remain hostile.

The politics of the “acceptable” trans woman

We also have to interrogate how media frame this story. When coverage celebrates Midori Monet, it is often filtered through respectability: beautiful, glamorous, non-threatening. The “good” trans woman is the one who fits narrow ideals of femininity and spectacle.

But the reality is that those most targeted by transphobic violence are rarely the ones who make headlines. In the US and UK alike, it is often Black trans women, migrants, sex workers, and disabled trans women who bear the brunt of abuse, neglect, and state violence. They are not the ones crowned, and rarely the ones interviewed.

Monet herself resisted this flattening when she said: 

We are human beings … we have hearts, emotions and feelings just like everyone else.

Her words push back against a culture that too often treats trans lives as expendable or tokenistic.

A global spotlight, a local struggle

Miss International Queen is hosted annually in Pattaya, Thailand, and is widely known as the world’s largest trans beauty pageant. It is both celebration and spectacle. Yet even in Thailand, trans women continue to face barriers to legal recognition, health care, and employment.

That contradiction mirrors the global landscape. In the US, where Midori Monet hails from, Black trans women face some of the highest rates of murder among LGBTQ+ communities. In the UK, trans rights are under siege by politicians who pit “women’s safety” against trans inclusion. Against this backdrop, the pageant crown becomes symbolic — a flash of recognition against a wall of systemic hostility.

Why Midori Monet’s win matters beyond the stage

Monet’s win is not trivial. It matters that a Black trans woman is recognised, applauded, and crowned on an international stage. Representation has symbolic power. It sends a message to young trans girls of colour who rarely see themselves celebrated.

But the danger is when we mistake representation for justice. Crowns and pageants cannot substitute for safety, housing, health care, and freedom from violence. Without those material changes, victories risk becoming tokenistic — a way for institutions to point at progress while ignoring continued harm.

Midori Monet is right: her ancestors’ wildest dreams may well include her crown. But the ancestors would likely also demand more — a world where trans women of colour live without fear, without poverty, without systemic violence.

This win is worth celebrating. But it must also be a reminder: visibility is not the same as liberation. The fight for trans justice is not over — in fact, it’s only just beginning.

Featured image via the Canary