For Angela Ponce, the Miss Universe pageant's first transgender contestant, the victory was simply being there.
The 27-year-old reigning Miss Spain, was celebrated online for being the first trans woman to compete in Sunday's pageant, held in Thailand.
“My hope is for tomorrow to be able to live in a world of equality for everyone, simply for us all to understand that we are human and we must make all our lives easier together,” she said in a special segment, featured in the broadcast.
“If I can give that to the world, I don’t need to win Miss Universe, I only need to be here.”
Ponce danced flamenco in national costume for the talent segment of the pageant, a childhood dream she said she was only able to fulfill when she was 17 years old.
“For a long time those were things I always wanted to do,” Ponce told Miss Universe organisers. “I put so much focus into it, that in the end, it became a reality.”
The Miss Universe pageant, has faced criticism in recent years for objectifying women and previously barring transgender contestants. Earlier this year Miss America dropped the swimsuit element of its competition after criticism it was dated.
Ponce's journey to be included in a space traditionally reserved for the most restrictive and exclusive ideal of femininity represented a victory for many fans in the LGBTIQ community, with even the pageant's official Twitter account marking the occasion.
Ponce had previously shared her struggle being accepted in the pageant world, saying she felt crushed after being disbarred from Miss World after finding out she was ineligible to compete on the day she was due to perform because she was trans.
“It crushed me,” Ponce told TIME. “I had to go on and perform, and it felt horrible. But after I got to the Miss Universe final, Miss World changed their rules too. I changed the rules.”
“I never imagined (I would make it to Miss Universe) because I lived in a society where everyone said I couldn’t do that,” Ponce told NBC. “And I didn’t have the information to realise that my dream to be a woman could ever actually be realised.”
