Myo Ko Ko San

Myo Ko Ko San (Burmese: မျိူးကိုကိုစန်း; born 1 September 1994) is a Burmese transgender model, LGBT rights activist and beauty pageant titleholder who was elected Miss International Queen Myanmar 2014 and represented Myanmar at the Miss International Queen 2014.[1][2] On 19 June 2018, she won the ASEAN - LGBT Community Pride Awards 2018.[3][4][5]

Myo Ko Ko San
မျိူးကိုကိုစန်း
Myo Ko Ko San at L'Oréal Event Myanmar
Born
Myo Ko Ko San

(1994-09-01) September 1, 1994
Mandalay, Myanmar
EducationTechnological University, Mandalay
OccupationModel, LGBT advocate, Beauty queen
Years active2013–present
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
TitleMiss Rainbow Ribbon 2013
Miss International Queen Myanmar 2014
Beauty pageant titleholder
Hair colorDark Brown
Eye colourBlack
Major
competition(s)		Miss Rainbow Ribbon 2013 (Winner)
Miss International Queen 2014

Early life and education

Myo Ko Ko San was born on 1 September 1994 in Mandalay, Myanmar, as a boy. She is the second child among three siblings, having a younger brother and an older brother. She experienced gender dysphoria beginning in early childhood, and began her gender transition at the age of 15 while attending school. She completed her sex reassignment surgery in Thailand at the age of 23. She studied civil engineering at Technological University, Mandalay.

Pageantry

Miss Rainbow Ribbon 2013

In 2013, she competed in Miss Rainbow Ribbon 2013, a pageant for transgender women which was held on 23 October 2013 at the Hotel Mandalay by Rainbow Ribbon Network Myanmar. After winning the event, she was elected to represent Myanmar for Miss International Queen 2014, the world's largest beauty pageant for transgender women.[6]

Miss International Queen 2014

She represented Myanmar at the Miss International Queen 2014 pageant which was held on 7 November 2014 in Pattaya, Thailand, along with participants from 20 other nations. She was the 1st runner-up for Talent.

Career

After previously competing in the Miss International Queen 2014 pageant, she was recognized as Miss International Queen Myanmar, and became a transgender supermodel and actress.[7]

Myo is set to be in the first Burmese transgender film. The film, currently untitled, will portray a transgender person who stands up for her rights even to the point of death.[8]

Arrest under section 66 (d)

Myo Ko Ko San was sued under section 66 (d) of the telecommunications law by actress Wutt Hmone Shwe Yi, who filed a lawsuit against Myo for defamation, accusing Myo of being the administrator of Cele Cele Small, a Facebook page which posted allegedly defamatory material towards the actress. Cele Cele Small was a Facebook page with over 1 Million likes that reveals inside information on the private lives of Myanmar’s celebrities and artists. Police took the model into custody at Yangon International Airport on her return from a visit to Bangkok, Thailand, and she was held at the Yankin Township Police Station on 17 January 2017.[9][10]

Aftermath

In Yankin Township Court, Myo Ko Ko San denied involvement with the Facebook group and questioned why the police had the right to arrest her without strong evidence. After four days in jail, Myo Ko Ko San was released and the defamation case against her was declared spurious as investigating officers found insufficient evidence to support the lawsuit.[11][12][13]

LGBT activism

Myo is an icon of Myanmar LGBTs and an advocate for LGBT rights in Myanmar. She has appeared in many campaigns for LGBT rights activism. Myo’s hope is that she can help educate people to learn more about LGBT issues and bring them towards a higher understanding.[1]

References
  1. Chit Su (29 September 2014). "Beauty pageant with a difference". The Myanmar Times.
  2. Thiha Toe (19 January 2017). "Actress Sues Model over Facebook Posts under Article 66(d)". The Irrawaddy.
  3. "Myo Koko San win ASEAN - LGBT Community Pride Awards 2018 - MIRadio". MIRadio. 19 June 2018.
  4. "Myo Ko Ko San Vs Vietnam ASEAN – LGBT - DVB". Democratic Voice of Burma. 12 June 2018.
  5. "ျမန္မာလိင္ေျပာင္းအလွမယ္ မ်ိဳးကိုကိုစန္းအာဆီယံ ဂုဏ္ျပဳဆုရ" (in Burmese). The Voice Weekly. 13 June 2018.
  6. Kyay Mone Win (28 November 2013). "ဟိုတယ်မန္တလေးတွင် ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည့် Miss Rainbow Ribbon ပြိုင်ပွဲ". The Myanmar Times.
  7. Kyaw, Kyaw Phone (19 January 2017). "LGBT beauty queen behind bars after actress files defamation suit". Frontier Myanmar.
  8. Nyein Ei Ei Thwe (18 December 2015). "Beauty queen to star in transgender film". The Myanmar Times.
  9. "Myanmar actress sues transgender beauty queen for defamation". Mizzima. 20 January 2017.
  10. "Statement on " Myo Ko Ko San" the Transgender Beauty Queen Detained by the Police". Progressive Voice Myanmar. 22 January 2017.
  11. Nyein Ei Ei Thwe (24 January 2017). "Transgender beauty queen released, vows to investigate accusation". The Myanmar Times.
  12. Kyaw, Kyaw Phone (20 January 2017). "Myo Ko Ko San released after defamation charges scuttled". Frontier Myanmar.
  13. "Transgender beauty queen jailed in Myanmar". The Times of India.
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