Kevin Balot, a transgender beauty queen who was crowned Miss International Queen 2012 and an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, believes that traditional beauty pageants are only exclusive for natural-born women, during her guesting in an online show on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 with the female hosts Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach, Binibining Pilipinas International 2014 Bianca Guidotti, and Mutya ng Pilipinas Intercontinental 2010 Carla Lizardo.

"We transwomen always ask for equality... And I believe, us, transgender women joining sa mga Miss Universe is not equality anymore eh. Hindi lang ako sang-ayon sa mga ganoong bagay kasi we have our own pageant. We have the Miss International Queen pageant which is the most prestigious transgender beauty pageant," Balot said.

"Hindi na siya equality eh, parang asking too much na," she added.

Kevin Balot’s opinion sparked debate and negative criticisms from Filipino netizens as her name topped local Twitter trends today, June 24, 2020.

Some online users claimed that Balot’s statement is wrong, privileged and that disallowing transgender beauty queens to join traditional pageants only “reinforces the denial of the womanhood of transwomen.”

Meanwhile, some of the netizens showed their support to Balot’s statement, including Filipina celebrity Dawn Chang.

Kevin Balot later on withdrawn her statement as she posted on her Twitter account, and clarified that she miscommunicated her opinion, and claimed that she stands and supports transwomen’s fight against inequality.

Watch Kevin Balot as she addressed her statement here (starts at 43:00):