Make Your Mark: The Pasadena Rose Parade Invites Men Who Identify as Women to Be Its Next Queen

 

 

If you’re a man who’s always wanted to lead the New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, your time has come.

That’s right: The iconic extravaganza has opened up its title of Rose Queen to dudes.

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Why not just have a Rose King, too? They’ve had a few, since 1905.

But this is different. Who doesn’t wanna be queen for a day?

There is a catch, though; you can be a man, but you’ve gotta conform to the social construct of female: It seems you’ll have to dress like a lady.

As reported by Pasadena Now, the Parade’s changed its rules so the royal court now invites any and all candidates who “identify as female.”

Once again, men swoop in to unseat a girl who would’ve otherwise gotten an opportunity. First sports (herehere, and here), then Playboy, then Victoria’s Secret (here), now a Rose is a ruse — I mean, rose. Get outta the way, chicks, and let Ethel Merman sing it to ya — anything you can do, men can do better. Or at least, they’ll try to.

From Pasadena Now:

A change to the Tournament of Roses application for the Royal Court could allow transgender applicants the opportunity to enter the process. Requirements previously required that applicants “must be female,” but this year the requirement has changed to “must identify as female.”

Actually, the local outlet specifies that men aren’t welcome:

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As before, men still are not allowed to enter the process.

So no men, but any people who identify as female. But also not just women.

Sounds like in Pasadena, they’ve got their own kinds of people walkin’ around.

But the important thing is the important thing that’s always the important thing, as stated by Tournament of Roses Chief Executive Officer David Eads:

“We have always tried to be very inclusive and embrace diversity.”

But not so inclusive as to allow men.

And this new diversity began over half a year ago:

“With our Royal Court members, last year we had our first Rose Queen that publicly identified as LGBTQ. So then the question of would we accept a transperson as part of our Royal Court, and again, based on our selection criteria, somebody’s sexual identity or orientation has never been part of our selection criteria.”

Indeed — Rose Queen Louise Deser Siskel came out to the Los Angeles Times as bisexual.

Going forward, guys have more reason than ever to challenge chicks for the throne:

Eads said the selection process is still based on several qualities, including speaking skills, leadership and their academic achievement and their community and school involvement.

The Tournament of Roses will also increase the scholarship from $2,500 to $7,500 for members of the Royal Court.

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Louise Deser Siskel made history. And now, if you’re a man who identifies as a woman but you’re definitely not a man, so can you.

-ALEX

 

Relevant RedState links in this article: hereherehere, and here.

Find all my RedState work here.

And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.

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