Miss California USA has seen its first openly gay contestants, just three short years after Miss California 2009 Carrie Prejean defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman .
Jenelle Hutcherson, 26, of Long Beach (left) and Mollie Thomas, 19 (right), of West Hollywood both entered the 2012 pageant and became the first participants in the contest’s 60-year history to refer to themselves as homosexual. Thomas said:
“I’m running for equality and will use this in order to promote visibility on current issues, to become a youth advocate and a role model.”
The beauty pageant is one of the few remaining arenas of heterosexuality, but Keith Lewis, co-executive of the Miss California contest, is happy that this is being challenged. He told the Los Angeles Times the entry of Hutcherson and Thomas will:
“[…] emphasize individuality and push the envelope even further. This year’s event will be bigger and reflect the progressive attitudes of the contestants.”
It seems this may not have been a totally spontaneous move by the ladies concerned. The Times reports Hutcherson and Thomas were approached by pageant recruiters to take part:
“Thomas agreed to compete because it allowed her to represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in a positive way.”
While this smacks of a publicity stunt – okay, it is a publicity stunt – it’s hardly promoting a negative message. That said, not all are convinced tying a political sentiment to a beauty pageant is worthwhile. One po-faced commenter on the LA Times blog opined:
“In order to have a non-biased result, it’s critical that all of the competitors be judged on a level playing field and not be given benefit for being either straight or gay. In short, this is a lot of PR and BS that has nothing to do with beauty.”
