Erin O’Flaherty, who was crowned last night as Miss Missouri, just became the first openly gay woman to compete in Miss America. The 23-year-old Erin is originally from South Carolina and came out as a lesbian back when she was 18, but wants to make it clear that she’s not making her sexuality a big part of her pageant platform.
“My focus of my year isn’t going to be that I’m gay,” said O’Flaherty. “It’s certainly a big part of who I am, and I will be promoting it and raising awareness for the LGBT community. But also there will be many appearances that I do that have nothing to do with that.” Instead, Erin wants to bring awareness to suicide prevention.
https://twitter.com/allanbrocka/status/745972312235614209
https://twitter.com/MissAmericaMO/status/744606663861215232
