Miss Spain Patricia Yurena Rodriguez has come out as lesbian, making her the first openly gay beauty queen, according to Latino FOX.
Rodríguez, the winner of Miss Spain for 2008 and 2013, posted a picture of herself lying on bed with her girlfriend Vanesa Klein, a Spanish DJ and singer. The picture has attracted nearly 7,000 likes and thousands of comments since it was posted last week.
The 24-year-old captioned the image, "Romeo and Juliet."
Rodriguez, who is also the runner-up at Miss Universe 2013, defended her decision to come out to La Opinión de Tenerife, telling the newspaper in Spanish, that she does not regret posting the picture.
"I don't regret what I did and I did it because I am happy about what's going on in my life," she told the newspaper.
She told Costa Rican newspaper La Nación she and Klein met through mutual friends and began dating several months ago. Rodríguez later thanked her fans for supporting her decision to come out in a follow-up Instagram post.
"I published the picture completely spontaneously and in an impulsive manner. Thank you for all your support and most importantly that you are happy with my happiness," Rodriguez captioned the post, which read, "Thanks for all your comments."
The New York Daily News reported that Rodriguez could be the last national beauty queen that the country produces, because the Certamen Miss Espana SL, which is the company that runs the pageants, filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
Despite Spain being a largely Roman Catholic country, it legalized same-sex marriage in 2005.
