As the first openly gay candidate and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, newly-crowned Miss Universe Philippines Beatrice Gomez inspires a new generation of pageant hopefuls that discrimination has no place in achieving their dreams.
HAILING from the Queen City of the South, Cebu City’s Beatrice Gomez is the newly-crowned Miss Universe Philippines in a pageant held at the Hennan Resort Convention Center in the Province of Bohol on Thursday night (September 30).
The 26-year-old hauled awards all through the night, including Panelist's Choice during the Introduction Challenge. Best in Swimsuit, Best in Evening Gown, Miss Creamsilk and Immunplus Game Changer.
Crowd favorites Maureen Wroblewitz of Pangasinan, finished 1st runner-up, and Steffi Aberasturi of Cebu Province placed 2nd runner-up.
Among the 27 glorious candidates, Gomez outlasted those women to win the title of Miss Universe Philippines.
As the first openly gay candidate and a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and now title holder, she inspires a new generation of pageant hopefuls that discrimination has no place in achieving their dreams.
It was her answer in the final question and answer portion where Gomez took her opportunity to capture and inspire the hearts of the judges and the crowd.
That question was: “If during your reign as Miss Universe Philippines, things happen in your life that make you sad and uninspired, how would you be able to continue inspiring others?”
"It is very evident that all of us have been through difficulties during this pandemic, but it also proved that we are able to rise to the occasion. And if anything happened to me during my reign, I will not give up and inspire others by rising to the problems that I am encountering and inspiring them that whatever they are going through, you will be able to overcome it," Gomez eloquently answered.
There were two new rooted titles from the 2021 pageant organization’s advocacies.
These were awarded to Katrina Dimaranan of Taguig as Miss Universe Philippines Tourism 2021, while Victoria Vincent of Cavite is Miss Universe Philippines Charity 2021.
Neither will compete in any international pageant. The titlists, however, are in line to take over, respectively, should the national winner be unable to finish her reign.
Rabiya Mateo, Miss Universe Philippines 2020, took her last walk as Miss Universe just moments before crowning the new title holder.
Unfortunately, she found herself stumbling in her last walk but thankfully the beauty queen was able to pick herself up.
"I had a lot of experiences in a span of a year, I've been into different things. I’ve had a lot of struggles, a lot of challenges, but I can say that it made me a mature woman right now. It made me realize to be more grateful for what I have, and bad things don't last in life," Rabiya said in her parting speech.
Gomez will be representing the Philippines at the 2021 Miss Universe Competition in Israel in December.
Tags: #beautypageants, #MissUniversePhilippines, #BeatriceGomez