Will Miss America’s First Openly Gay Contestant Snatch The Crown?

Miss Missouri Erin O'Flaherty will compete on the Miss America stage tonight in Atlantic City.
From: NewNowNext

 Miss Missouri, 23-year-old Erin O’Flaherty, will make history tonight as the first openly gay contestant in Miss America’s 95-years history.

O’Flaherty, who came out at 18, took her state’s title in June.

 “I don’t know that I intended to be the first, but I am,” she said at the time. “So I’m very excited about it.”

Though she’s not shy about talking about her sexuality, O’Flaherty has said that being gay is just one facet she hopes to bring to the competition—and her potential reign.

 “It’s certainly a big part of who I am, and I will be promoting it and raising awareness for the LGBT community,” she explained. “But also there will be many appearances that I do that have nothing to do with that. And so I’m hoping that I can strike a really nice balance of staying true to the values of Miss Missouri and also being able to exercise my personal views.”

Still, she says, there was no question she would compete as an out proud woman.

 “I knew that if I didn’t compete openly, I wouldn’t be successful and I wasn’t going to be true to myself,” she told People. “I really think to have the genuine experience, you have to be genuine in who you are. It was a little bit scary, but there was never going to be another decision that was made.”

O’Flaherty has been a vocal advocate for suicide prevention, and plans to raise the issue at tonight’s pageant. She’s an ambassador for both the American Society for Suicide Prevention and the Trevor Project, which tackles suicide in LGBT youth.

And while she says her own coming-out journey wasn’t difficult, the reality of suicide among young LGBT people—coupled with the death of a close friend at age 13—brought the issue home for her. “LGBT youth are up to eight times more likely to attempt suicide if they come from an unaccepting environment, so the work the Trevor Project is doing is really important.”

Will she win? Missouri has only had one Miss America in the contest’s history: Debbye Turner in 1990. But Erin’s already proven she has the poise, integrity and dedication of a champion, crown or no crown.

Go get ’em, girl!

The 2017 Miss America competition airs tonight at 9pm on ABC.