Posted on 06/23/2016 3:47:42 PM PDT by drewh
Erin O’Flaherty made history when she became the first openly gay to win the Miss Missouri contest. As the pageant queen moves on to this year’s Miss America competition in September, she will stand as the contest’s first openly lesbian contestant. Reportedly, 23-year-old O’Flaherty declared her sexual orientation since she was 18 as openly gay throughout her pageant career.
After winning the Miss Missouri competition in Mexico, Missouri, Ann Jolly, chairman of the board of the Miss Missouri Scholarship Organization, reportedly confirmed that O’Flaherty is the first LGBT contestant to win the title. “I’m on cloud nine, really, just to be Miss Missouri. I don’t know that I intended to be the first, but I am. So I’m very excited about it,” she told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Erin, who’s originally from South Carolina is a graduate from the University of Central Florida and owns Rachel’s Grove, a clothing boutique in Chesterfield. She will compete for the Miss America title in Atlantic City, New Jersey in September this year. The new Miss Missouri, whose pageant platform is suicide prevention hopes to forward the cause of the LGBT community throughout her time as the Miss America contestant, but added that it won’t be the sole focus of her stardom.
Daily Mail quoted O’Flaherty saying, “It’s certainly a big part of who I am, and I will be promoting it and raising awareness for the LGBT community. But also there will be many appearances that I do that have nothing to do with that.” Reportedly, Erin had exceptional reasons to be anxious. She was apprehensive if being openly gay would hurt her chances.
According to the Huffington Post, it was hard for O’Flaherty to come out public about her sexual leanings because she wanted to protect her relationship and had to come to terms with herself before the rest of the world got a chance to know who she was.
After winning the crown, she signed in to her official Miss Missouri Twitter account for the first time. The entry of Erin O’Flaherty’s as a lesbian in the Miss America Pageant is a defining moment in the franchise’s 95-year history. She hopes that winning Miss Missouri and aiming for the Miss America pageant sends a message to other LGBT aspirants who hope to compete for the beauty contest someday.
In 2012, Mollie Thomas tried her luck to become the first openly gay Miss California, and in 2013 Analouisa Valencia contested for the beauty pageant for South Carolina. Neither of them won the respective contest.
While this could be the first time an openly gay woman is hoping for a title in the Miss America contest, other beauty pageants around the world already count on celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, including Miss gay Venezuela and Miss Trans Israel.
Erin O’Flaherty’s winning the Miss Missouri title reportedly points out more than a conquest of beauty and talent. According to Women’s Voices for Change, “It was a high-heeled step in the right direction for diversity, because O’Flaherty is the first openly gay woman to win the state pageant.”
While beauty pageants often talk of grand plans to bring meaningful change in the world, time will tell whether Erin’s stand as a gay beauty contestant would help America break stereotypes about gay women as less feminine.
Erin hopes that she can strike a really nice balance of staying true to the values of Miss Missouri and also manage to communicate her personal views as a gay contestant in the Miss America contest.
While, officials of the Miss America Pageant are yet to comment on her win, Erin O’Flaherty’s is on her way to the 96th annual Miss America pageant September. Can she win the Miss America crown in September?
She’s a graduate of UCF, that’s in Orlando. Gay muzzie mass murderer, female karate teachers hitting on 11 year olds with naked pictures of themselves, Miss (gay) Missouri transplant. Quite a month for Orlando.
Isn’t Missouri the “show me” state? So which gender is she/he? I’m confused. The portrait picture has me wondering.
I go back to Miss West Virginia 1989, when asked about her chances of winning. She said she didn’t have a chance. “There is a black, Korean, Japanese, hearing impaired, a kidney transplant, Texas and Florida. I’m not going to win.”
She self identifies as being 23. Don’t judge her!(or is it him?)Oh wait... someone will judge her in this contest thingy.
That girl is Miss Missouri?
How does a girl who is about a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1-10 become a state’s supposed most beautiful?
I suspect everyone knows why.
Next year it will be a transgender.
Everyone needs a gimmick. But it must be something in the water in Missouri. Football players, beauty queens, politicians. Any straights in the state?
She has the face and hands of a 40 year old.
I’m surprised it’s not a man who identifies as a woman four days a week. This is getting ridiculous.
If that’s what passes as the most beautiful woman in Missouri, they should change their motto to “the don’t show me state”.
She does look like she is hitting the wall.
That was the first thing that came to my mind also!
Except that Margaret Hamilton was prettier in real life and was a classy lady.
You can pull all the stops out
Till they call the cops out
Grind your behind till you’re bend
But you gotta get a gimmick
If you wanna get a hand
You can sacrifice your sacharo
Working in the back row
Bump in a dump till you’re dead
Kid you gotta get a gimmick
If you wanna get ahead
You can uh, you can uh, you can uh, uh, uh
That’s how Burlesque was born
So I uh, and I uh, and I uh, uh, uh
But I do it with a horn
Once I was a schleppa
Now I’m Miss Mazzeppa
With my revolution in dance
You gotta have a gimmick
If you wanna have a chance
She can uh, she can uh, she can uh, uh, uh
It’ll never make her rich
Me, I uh, and I uh, and I uh, uh, uh
But I do it with a switch
I’m electrifying and I ain’t even trying
I never have to sweat to get paid
‘Cause if you got a gimmick
Gypsy girl you got it made
All them uh and them uh and them uh, uh, uh
Ain’t gonna spell success
Me, I uh, and I uh, and I uh, uh, uh
But I do it with finesse
Dressy Tracy Tessie Tura is so much more demurer
Than all them other ladies because
You gotta get a gimmick
If you wanna get applause
Do something special anything special
Earn you a big fancy car
You’re more than just a mimic when you gotta gimmick
Take a look how different we are
If you wanna make it
Twinkle while you shake it
If you wanna grind it
Wait till you refined it
If you wanna bump it
Bump it with a trumpet
Get yourself a gimmick
And you too can be a star You Gotta Have A Gimmick - from “Gypsy” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFRSawe33sA
A number of "men" involved in this pageant will also bend over forwards for it.
There *had* to have been moral turpitude clauses in these pageant contracts that specifically prohibited sexual perversion. No doubt that language was quietly dropped in recent history.
But has she made any porno movies?
Not good-looking at all!
That’s not what I said. Save that for another time.
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