Could the Next Miss America Be a Lesbian?

Erin O’Flaherty is crowned Miss Missouri. (Photo: AP)

In the most recent years of the LGBT rights movement, we’ve seen particular strides made by lesbians who are out and succeeding as news commentators, talk show hosts, powerful politicians, award-winning actresses, and legally married wives. But a gay Miss America? No way.

This week, however, the possibility of that became a little more real thanks to Erin O’Flaherty, the newly crowned Miss Missouri, who will be the first openly gay woman to compete in the 95-year-old Miss America contest come September.

“I do think it is a big deal to come into Miss America being open, because the visibility for the LGBT community is what we need right now,” O’Flaherty told Cosmopolitan, noting that she has been warmly accepted throughout her pageant experience. “I would never, ever let anybody pressure me to [stay closeted]. This is who I am, and the judges chose me!” she said. “I’m not the kind of person who is going to give in to that pressure, but I actually haven’t felt that much pressure. People have been very accepting so, as much as it might be scary for me to come into a conservative state and to be who I am, at the same time, people have greeted me with open arms.”

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That might come as a surprise to folks who view beauty pageants as outdated, anti-feminist contests that reward Barbie clones with conservative ideals. But according to longtime pageant coach Valerie Hayes, “The evolution in the pageant community reflects the evolution of society at large, which has moved toward overall inclusiveness. This reflects a shift in generational values and acceptance.” Hayes tells Yahoo Beauty that she had several clients taking part in the Miss Missouri contest this year and that the buzz around O’Flaherty was “very supportive,” with the others “just valuing her as another contestant at the pageant.”

In fact, she notes, the pendulum of acceptance seems to have swung so far among some that there were even rumblings of how the fact that O’Flaherty is gay would be an advantage in the Miss America contest and speculation that she would be a “shoo-in” to at least become a finalist. And there may be some truth to that since the Miss America Organization, in recent years, has aimed to choose a diverse array of women in order to help show that they are shattering stereotypes. “They can now say, ‘We have a lesbian,’” Hayes notes, which the organization now understands could bring in additional viewers — and revenue. “But it’s also a natural result of some of the old-guard leadership retiring, she says, and of younger ideals taking hold.

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“Even five years ago, this was a pageant where contestants felt they could not say they believed gay marriage was OK, because they were worried about the judges,” she says. “And 10 years ago, if I had a multi-ethnic contestant in a pageant, the judges would ask her directly about it. Now nobody notices.”

O’Flaherty has even spoken out about her sub-LGBT identity — that of being a feminine, or “femme,” lesbian and therefore a woman who often feels invisible within the gay community because she is so often perceived as being straight.

“Growing up, I was very feminine. Knowing I might be gay but also being very feminine was kind of confusing for me because I didn’t fit into the stereotypical category I had in my head for a woman in the LGBT community,” she told Cosmopolitan. “It took many years of struggle to figure out who I was. Femme lesbians are underrepresented in the LGBT community. … I hope that I can just reach someone that needs the help that I could have used back then.”

In response to those comments, Ann Pellegrini, professor of social and cultural analysis and director of New York University’s Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, tells Yahoo Beauty, “I am fascinated by O’Flaherty’s public identification as a ‘femme lesbian’ and her interest to model to other queer women (and especially young people just coming out) that lesbians come in multiple [forms],” she tells Yahoo Beauty. “And to the extent that beauty pageants are stamped as somehow the opposite of, or at least in tension with, feminist goals of women’s equality, and to the extent that feminists are still identified (incorrectly, of course!) in the public mind as man-­hating, unattractive lesbians, then it seems impossible to imagine a lesbian on the inside of a beauty pageant as a viable contestant.” And yet here we are.

Lesbians have always competed in beauty pageants, of course, but those who do so openly still make headlines. In 2012, two gay contestants — Jenelle Hutcherson and Mollie Thomas — made history when they competed in the Miss California contest. Miss South Carolina hopeful Analouisa Valencia received a fair amount of attention in 2013 for being not only a proud lesbian but a biracial woman. And then, a year later, two former titleholders came out — Miss Spain 2008 and 2013, Patricia Yurena Rodriguez, who made her declaration through an Instagram photo (above) of herself in bed with her girlfriend; and Miss Kentucky 2010, Djuan Keila Trent, who came out through a blog post in which she declared herself “queer.”

O’Flaherty, however — who plans to use her platform to speak out about suicide prevention and LGBT youth, namely by heralding the Trevor Project — is being lauded for being out from the start. “Warms my gay little heart to see @RobinRoberts interview newly crowned out lesbian Miss Missouri Erin O’Flaherty on #GMA,” tweeted Trish Bendix, editor-in-chief of After Ellen. Perez Hilton tweeted, simply, “Progress!” And the Trevor Project posted this: “Congrats to @MissAmericaMO! Your bravery in being visibly gay shows #LGBTQ youth their futures can be bright!”

Buzz within the pageant community has also been supportive — at least judging by the flurry of comments on VoyForums, a popular online chatter spot for pageant fans and participants. “Congratulations to Miss Missouri for this exceptional, HISTORICAL, win,” noted one, with another adding, “What makes it historic [is] that in a super conservative organization, she dared to be HONEST about her sexuality, and she still won.”

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