, Columnist
Eurovision's Winners: Tolerance and a Bearded Star
Look at the popular vote and you'll see that the performance by bearded lady Conchita Wurst at this year's Eurovision Song Contest was truly a victory for tolerance.
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Austrian Tom Neuwirth's stage image in the Eurovision Song Contest, the bearded lady Conchita Wurst, was calculated to shock and cause controversy. It was also a political gamble that paid off throughout Europe.
With her feline grace, outrageous gowns, the eyelashes of a cute baby giraffe and full blue-black beard, Conchita Wurst was no ordinary contestant. She was an ambassador for the gender spectrum. Trans activist Paris Lees explained in the Guardian: "They say trans people reinforce gender roles while simultaneously they try to push us back into neat little 'boy' or 'girl' boxes. Conchita knows no such box -- and she won't let radicals, Russians or right-wingers tell her who she is supposed to be."