From February 24 to March 7, 2020 I will represent the U.S. transgender community at the Miss International Queen pageant in Thailand as Miss USA. As the world's most prestigious transgender pageant, now celebrating its fifteenth anniversary, the two weeks of events will build positive visibility for the global transgender community. For me, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience to build connections with transgender women representing twenty-five different countries. The theme of the pageant is world equality, and each contestant will present their own vision of what equal rights means to them. I have never competed in, or even seen, a pageant before. I have never modeled or walked a runway. I don’t know how I’m going to survive two weeks of non-stop photoshoots, ...