Tonight in Las Vegas, the Miss America pageant will crown its 90th beauty, awarding one of fifty-three women a $50,000 scholarship and the title and crown, to be passed on by last year’s winner Caressa Cameron. The two-hour event will be broadcast live on ABC at 9pm EST. And one possible winner, of course, will be Miss New York Claire Buffie, who’s been hitting the headlines and cable news networks (see above) as a same-sex marriage champion, and an all around advocate for heteros supporting LGBT equality — the first contestant in Miss America history to make our rights her central mission. Now raise your hand if you think Buffie will push her gay agenda during the pageants Q&A portion!
UPDATE: Nope, Buffie didn’t win. The crown is now on the head of Miss Nebraska Teresa Scanlan, who attacked WikiLeaks in her Q&A, and who at 17 becomes the youngest person (and first Nebraskan) to ever win. Along with Miss Delaware Kayla Martell, Buffie did win ABC’s America’s Choice Award, where viewers voted for their favorite contestant.
ALEX
I applaud her stand and wish her the best of luck. While I am not a supporter of pageants in general (unless I am in contention for the tiara, dammit!)I realize Miss America is about as mainstream as can be so if she wins and moves LGBT issues forward, it is a win for everyone. Go Claire!
Jeffree
@Alex: Co-sign! It’s a refreshing change of pace from that Prejean person.
Um, you know you can *buy* a Tiara at many stores and pretend you won a contest. Start working on yr acceptance speech, because ya never know when you’ll need it !
josh
Why is anti-gay bigot, Gretchen Carlson, hosting this??
JoJo
I actually managed to watch the pageant after seeing this post. Claire, Miss New York made the Top 12 I believe it was, out of some 50 + competitors, so it was really exciting to see America voted someone with her very poignant message as their People’s Choice. She also looked stunning in her black dress I thought. After she got cut, I tuned out. But congrats to Miss New Yok on her accomplishment and for being a friend!
IonMusic
I caught the show too! She actually did say in one of her interview clips shown on the telecast that she is proud to be the first woman in the pageants history to promote equal rights for all citizens as she feels gay rights is the civil rights movement of her time. So that was really cool. I watched these things growing up as a kid around the living room with my family, and it was a little surreal to hear a Miss America contestant talk about gay rights on the show.
I echoe everyone else’s sentiments. Props to Miss New York! May the entire state follow in her compassionate foot steps.
and side note, I thought New York was prettier than the eventual winner, but they kept saying how it’s a scholarship thing and not a pageant.