Twenty-one-year-old Raika Ferraz on
Monday won the title of “Miss T Brazil” in Rio.
Twenty-eight contestants competed for
the title during the country's second annual pageant.
Ferraz won a sex change operation in
Thailand but said she would not undergo full sex reassignment
surgery.
“I'll get my nose done and a bit of
botox,” Ferraz told gay news site Neto
Lucon. “I also think I'm a little bit fat.”
“What matters is that you feel happy
with who you are, you know,” Ferraz told the AFP. “If you're a
transsexual who hasn't had surgery and you like yourself that way,
well that's what matters. And what also matters is respecting
individuals.”
Marjorie Marchi of the Association of
Transvestites and Transsexuals of Rio told the news agency that the
pageant also serves to increase awareness.
“We use beauty as a political
strategy, so that these people can benefit from policies that could
change the sad and degrading context that transvestites and
transsexuals still live in in most South American countries,”
Marchi said.
Ferraz will represent Brazil at next
year's Miss International Queen 2014 in Thailand.