The first transgender contestant made history at last night’s Miss Universe pageant in Bangkok, Thailand. Miss Spain, Angela Ponce, failed to make the final Top 20 round, but offered this defining statement: “I don’t need to win Miss Universe. I only need to be here.”

Ponce told the AP in July that she hoped to use her platform as a way to help trans kid s and high rates of suicides among trans teenagers: “If my going through all this contributes to the world moving a little step forward, then that’s a personal crown that will always accompany me…”

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@missuniverse contest included a very sweet profile of Miss Spain, @angelaponceofficial, who is the pageant’s first transgender contestant. Que Bonita!

A post shared by Linda Simpson (@lindasimpson) on Dec 16, 2018 at 6:31pm PST

Ponce spoke with TIME magazine in November about what her competition would mean: “More than a message to [Donald Trump], it would be a win for human rights. Trans women have been persecuted and erased for so long. If they give me the crown, it would show trans women are just as much women as cis women….I like to think that most people who don’t understand me, it’s not because they’re bad people. It’s because no one taught them about diversity. What you don’t talk about doesn’t exist—even though trans people have been here since there were people on earth.”

https://twitter.com/angelaponceof/status/1074154949712453632

Tweeted Ponce before the event: “It is time for our loud, clear and direct voice to be heard, to put an end to senseless hatred and violence. Equality, respect, inclusion, promote human rights to the world and that my participation in #MissUniverse can bring visible changes in society.”

The first transgender Miss Universe contestant in the competition's history, Angela Ponce, says she's proud to represent Spain and increase trans visibility: https://t.co/FExUBVgRdC pic.twitter.com/q2IYlPv1v8

— CNN (@CNN) December 17, 2018

https://twitter.com/angelaponceof/status/1072476070862094344

https://twitter.com/Jhaycie1231/status/1074482615145693185

https://twitter.com/kimber_datu/status/1074478175999057920

The Miss Universe crown eventually went to Catriona Gray, Miss Philippines.