--- title: Miss Spain Is First Transgender Miss Universe Competitor description: Miss Spain, Angela Ponce, made history as the first transgender contestant in the annual Miss Universe competition. canonical: https://time.com/5481417/miss-spain/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-17T15:29:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:29.341Z og:title: Miss Spain is Miss Universe's First Transgender Competitor og:description: Meet Angela Ponce og:url: https://time.com/5481417/miss-spain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8d1125b39cc580f/698941a286f68e91c36eafca/Miss-Spain-first-transgender-Miss-Universe-2018-contestant.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: THAILAND-MISS UNIVERSE-PAGEANT og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Miss Spain is Miss Universe's First Transgender Competitor twitter:description: Meet Angela Ponce twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8d1125b39cc580f/698941a286f68e91c36eafca/Miss-Spain-first-transgender-Miss-Universe-2018-contestant.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Miss Spain Made History as the First Miss Universe Transgender Competitor  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 17, 2018 3:29 PM UTC  Angela Ponce of Spain competes during the 2018 Miss Universe Pageant in Bangkok on December 17, 2018\. - Miss Philippines was crowned Miss Universe on December 17 in Bangkok after a trailblazing ceremony praised for featuring its first transgender candidate but marred by gaffes about the English-speaking ability of two Asian contestants. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP) (Photo credit should read LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty Images) Angela Ponce of Spain competes during the 2018 Miss Universe Pageant in Bangkok on December 17, 2018\. - Miss Philippines was crowned Miss Universe on December 17 in Bangkok after a trailblazing ceremony praised for featuring its first transgender candidate but marred by gaffes about the English-speaking ability of two Asian contestants. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP) (Photo credit should read LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty Images)LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA—AFP/Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 17, 2018 3:29 PM UTC [Angela Ponce](http://time.com/5465550/angela-ponce-miss-universe/), Miss Spain 2018, made history in this year’s [Miss Universe competition](http://time.com/5479470/miss-usa-backlash/) as the first transgender contestant. [Catriona Gray](http://time.com/5481162/miss-universe-philippines-catriona-gray/), Miss Philippines, ultimately took home the night’s top prize and while Ponce didn’t make the top 20 in Sunday night’s competition, her participation in the pageant represents a huge win for the visibility of transgender people on an international scale, something that the contestant addressed in an Instagram post prior to the contest. “What an honor and pride to be part of the history of @missuniverse,” she wrote. This is for you, for those who have no visibility, no voice, because we all deserve a world of respect, inclusion and freedom. And today I am here, proudly representing my nation, all women and human rights.” Although transgender contestants have been eligible for Miss Universe since 2012, Ponce’s inclusion in the pageant is especially poignant, considering that it was formerly owned by Donald Trump, whose administration was slammed this fall for considering [a policy that would erase protections for trans individuals](http://time.com/5430696/donald-trump-lgbtq-remove-transgender-gender-definition/). See Ponce’s full post below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5481417/miss-spain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5481417/miss-spain/"},"headline":"Miss Spain Made History as the First Miss Universe Transgender Competitor","datePublished":"2018-12-17T15:29:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:29.341Z","description":"Meet Angela Ponce","url":"https://time.com/5481417/miss-spain/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8d1125b39cc580f/698941a286f68e91c36eafca/Miss-Spain-first-transgender-Miss-Universe-2018-contestant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8d1125b39cc580f/698941a286f68e91c36eafca/Miss-Spain-first-transgender-Miss-Universe-2018-contestant.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"THAILAND-MISS UNIVERSE-PAGEANT","caption":"THAILAND-MISS UNIVERSE-PAGEANT","creditText":"LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5481417/miss-spain/","name":"Miss Spain Made History as the First Miss Universe Transgender Competitor"}}]}] ```