A male contestant hopes to compete in the final of Miss. University of London after being crowned Miss. Heythrop.

Christopher Hayden Hayes, a 20 year old drag act who studies philosophy, religious studies and ethics at Heythrop College, University of London outshone the other entrants in the swimwear, formalwear and talent rounds of the competition. 

Christopher is a professional drag queen for clubs in Manchester and goes by the name of Miss. Jessica sparkle.  “I don’t think the contest should be restricted to genetic females” Christopher told London Student.

He believes the he has a right to enter the pageant and that the transgender community should not be discriminated against.

James Johnston, organiser of the Miss Heythrop Heat, said: “it doesn’t go against any of the rules… we’ve had the pageant, we’ve got a representative and we’ve entered them online so as far as I can see we’ve done it all by the book.”

He added: “”If there is any controversy coming from this then I don’t see it coming from us I see it coming from the handling of the event. We held a pageant and simply aimed to make it more fair by not constricting it to just one gender… We’re not protesting against the pageant, far from it, we just want to be part of it.”

The president of Heythrop Students’ Union has e-mailed the Miss University London event organisers and the Union is now waiting to see if their contestant will be accepted into the competition.

Johnston continued: “The selection process is quite dubious. If they don’t let him in I’d like to know what the selection process was and why they didn’t let him in.”

Christian Emile, head of 121 Entertainment which created Miss. University of London said: “There are two types of people, those who build things up and those who tear things down. We are happy to work with those who wish to build Miss University London for the good of all concerned”.

He also told London student that a winner of a college heat does not automatically qualify for the final.

John Underwood, Heythrop SU president, said: “Heythrop is trying to remind the London student body that this is all supposed to be a bit of fun. Jessica sparkle’s candidacy is very much in the original spirit of the pageant and we hope that she’ll be a refreshing change from the bitterness and backbiting that has surrounded the competition this year.”

Miss. University of London hit the national media after strong opposition from protestors who accused the contest of being misogynistic and objectifying the female body.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 15:12 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.