Camilia Dzelma ! Camilia Dzelma News

Maggie Gao, from China, earlier this year won Miss World Shenzhen, a women's beauty pageant in the southern Chinese city -- but it then emerged that she was a man and the organisers withdrew her title.

"So I am very glad that Miss International Queen has given me the chance to take part," the 27-year-old ballet dancer from Shanghai told AFP backstage before the contest.

Camilia Dzelma, 22, from Singapore, said her Muslim family had accepted her as she is and called for more transgender beauty pageants.

"I am here to open up things and show the world that I am not a freak," said Dzelma, a children's dance instructor at a government-run school.

"These competitions reduce discrimination. My family is Muslim but they do not care about what my identity is as long as they know that I am happy. My mum just called me and wished me good luck," she said.

Thailand's laws have failed to keep up with the country's tolerant reputation.

Transsexuals in Thailand complain that they are legally discriminated against because they cannot change their gender on their ID cards, while new rules on waiting periods have been imposed for sex-change operations.