Transgender beauty queen Jenna
Talackova on Friday told Barbara Walters that she could not bear to
look at the “other part” of her body in the mirror.
In an interview broadcast on ABC's Good
Morning America, Walters spoke with Talackova, her mother and the
civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Talackova.
Talackova is the 23-year-old Canadian
who was told she could not compete in the Miss Universe Canada
pageant because she was not born female. The organization later
backtracked, saying Talackova would be allowed to participate.
Talackova's mother told Walters that
she always wanted a daughter “but when I had Jenna, the last child,
I said, 'Well, that's okay, I guess I have four sons.'”
“And look what happened,” Walters
added. “You got the daughter.”
Talackova said her gender reassignment
surgery was “intense” and “terribly painful.”
“But seeing something on your body
for that long and not being able to look at myself in the mirror
because I couldn't stand seeing the other part, it was actually very
rewarding, too,” she said.
When Walters asked, “So, if I saw you
undressed, you would look like a woman to me totally?” Talackova
answered: “Of course.” (Watch
the entire segment on YouTube.com.)