Their cumulative scores will determine the top 15 finalists who will compete in front of a nationally televised audience on Sunday, when Miss America 2017 will be crowned. The traditional boardwalk procession is a signature part of the New Jersey Miss America experience, one that returned to Atlantic City with the pageant in 2013.
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“Behind the scenes, we’ve been well-represented, but I’m the first openly gay title holder, so I’m very excited”, she said.
“Not much has changed other than now I get to be someone that’s in a public position of influence for my community and I’m really excited about that”, she said.
Whether O’ Flaherty is to win or not, she’s already making history by being the first Miss America contestant to win a state title after coming out.
Previous Miss America contestant Djuan Trent competed as Miss Kentucky in 2011 but at the time her sexuality wasn’t public.
It said that Erin supports suicide prevention charities after she lost a close friend to suicide aged 13. At the time she told reporters: “I don’t know that I meant to be the first but I am, so I’m very excited about it”. It’s never going to be something I try to hide because I’m very proud to be a member of the LGBT community’.
Unlike the Miss USA pageant, all of the Miss America contestants will be required to perform a talent.
“They literally missed Miss America”, Helfant said.
30, 2016 photo shows Miss America contestants at a welcoming ceremony in Atlantic City. Her regal headpiece shimmered as photographers crushed around her for a photo with the shoes, which she promised to auction off for charity – if she can part with the peep-toe pumps – after she wears them for the Show Us Your Shoes Parade on September 10.
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Miss District of Columbia and Miss Tennessee have won the first night of preliminaries in the Miss America competition. “To see that on TV with 50 women, as a young gay boy, that’s the first place you see such a concentration of that”.
