Zoe Seloane, a 24-year-old education student and transgender woman from Cape Town, has entered the Miss South Africa pageant and cannot wait to make history for the queer community.
Seloane, originally from the Eastern Cape, moved to Cape Town straight after High School and later decided to pursue a career in education at CPUT. Currently in her second year of university, she is completing her teaching practical at a school in the Eastern Cape.
Seloane started doing drag in 2016 and started partaking in drag pageants the same year.
“I have always loved pageantry. When I started doing drag, I experienced a different type of happiness. I love the adrenaline rush that comes with it. It makes me feel whole and happy."
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In 2018, she competed in the Miss Gay Western Cape pageant where she made it to the top five and won a prize for the ‘Body Beautiful’ category.
Seloane said the Miss South Africa pageant would be her first time competing against heterosexual women.
“I am nervous because this is a national pageant, which is a very progressive step for the queer community," she said.
The Miss South Africa pageant has allowed transgender women to enter and compete since 2019. However, their entry is only allowed on the condition that they have already been to home affairs to have their ID document reflect their gender identity alignment.
After completing a psychological evaluation and receiving the letter from her doctor, Seloane decided to amend her gender at home affairs earlier this year.
“It was such an easy process for me. I thought that going there would be an emotional experience, but it was over so quickly,” she said.
She added: “Going to home affairs is something that I should have done a while ago because I always got funny looks whenever I presented my old ID at the bank or airport.”
The Miss South Africa pageant comes with a variety of eligibility requirements. Seloane said that she checked all of the rules to ensure that she meets all of them. She even asked more people to check to ensure that she will not be disqualified for not meeting the criteria.
She said: "This pageantry space has so much room for inclusivity and visibility for all women and all women should be allowed to enter. You are not less of a candidate just because you do not meet all the criteria.”
Seloane has been on hormone therapy since 2019 and said that getting the doctor’s note to amend her ID, seemed like a natural progression of events to her.
“The doctor’s visits have been of great help on my journey, ensuring that I am receiving the right hormones in the proper dosage. I will forever advocate for inclusive health care to be made available to trans-women."
Seloane was 16 years old when she first realised that she was different and said that she referred to herself as gay at the time.
“After that, I started doing drag pageants and that was where I discovered the real me. When I was in boy form, I always felt insecure about myself. Starting hormone therapy made me feel comfortable and seeing the changes in my body made me happy,” she said.
Seloane said that it has always been her dream to enter this pageant and that she is honoured to have the opportunity to represent the LGBTQIA+ community in it.
“I want to challenge the system and break normative standards. My friends all work for organisations that challenge the system; I want to play my part, make a change and see results,” she said.
She added: “I want to break the stigma of how people see trans-women. We are not just some fantasy to some heterosexual men. We are not freaks, there is nothing wrong with us.”