Miss California USA Pageant To Have Openly Gay Contestants
For the first time in its history, Miss California USA, which is I think, ultimately owned by Donald Trump is going to have openly gay contestants. The two women who are openly gay were invited by pageant executives to compete. Mollie Thomas, pictured above will represent West Hollywood. Another contestant will represent Long Beach. Neither of them women has ever competed in a pageant before which gives them very long odds. I suggest a lot of viewings of Toddlers & Tiaras and Miss Congeniality. Late night calls to Donald Trump offering to fix his hair might also work. There are 400 women in the competition competing to be Miss California.
29 comments:
Go Cali!
Little steps are so much better than no steps at all.
Yay for this!
Why shouldn't they? I wish all states would do this, but as you said Rita, baby steps.
On another note, I wonder how it worked that they invited them. If they were'nt in the business of pageants did the pageant people go looking specifically for out young women to sign up? Was there no out women already competing?
Inquring minds want to know!
^Ignore spelling f ups!
Hmmmm I am torn, lipstick lesbians on parade fulfilling men's hot girl on girl fantasy?? Because you do know when they mean lesbian they do not mean masculine looking butch dykes?
This is one of those 'missing the facts' stories that causes me to doubt this blog sometimes. These two ladies aren't going to compete, they already have. The pageant was held this weekend. Maybe that's a small detail to some but it seems important to me.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/01/openly-gay-miss-california-usa-contestants-make-history.html
@Reno - no worries, my keyboard is driving me nuts!!! seems some keys are just not being punched hard enough!
the girl in the pic is beautiful.
Nice!
Welcome to the Golden State; where we will allow gay and lesbians to parade in bikinis with our other genius contestants but they still can't marry. Huge step
Gee...I'll bet that winner will totally LICK her competition!
That Donald Trump is like, so amazing you guys! He like totally knows how to keep his projects hip and current with all the new trends. It's almost like he's totally TRYING to cause controversial things for attention/relevancy!
If you wanna have a Miss Lesbian contest, that would be great. If you have gay contestants? That's great. But it really takes the honesty out of it when you PRETEND to have some beautiful lipstick lesbians on there just to court Lady Ga Ga's "bullied" fan base. Homosexuality is like the "new black" for this season. Yawn.
MontanaM- gooood point.
Also, I am slightly uncomfortable that these girls were singled out (despite having little to no pageant experiance) to compete for Miss Cali.
Statisically, out of 400 women there must be some gayelles in the mix that could compete.
This screams publicity stunt. Afterall, arent pageants doing poorly as far as ratings are concerned on tv for the past few years???
^Ha, Homosexuality is the new black, awesome
awesome!!
meow Mollie Thomas!
montana & jasmine...excellent food for thought. hmm.
Thanks Pookie, and you know, I am happy lesbians can be out and proud at this pageant. I just think that it's only the lipstick approved version of lesbianism that is allowed to be shown. And that version of lesbian seems to be easier for people to swallow because it's not threatening to the male species. Whereas more masculine lesbians ARE, as the characteristics of masculinity is then shown for what it is- which is fluid and not static. Men seem to cling to that whole showing of being 'men' and when a woman brings her version of this, be it with assertiveness (traditionally a male characteristic), or being butch, she is in danger of blurring those rigid gender lines that are really held up to reinforce men's dominance.
^ita, jasmine. it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out going forward w/ pageants of this type.
I look forward to the day when a persons sexuality isn't an issue.
Actually I look forward to the day when there are as few beauty contests for women as there are for men. Stupid contests.
While I think it's a publicity stunt, I don't get WTH it matters if the contestant is straight or gay? Seriously?
Hey fair enough. As for it being the Lipstick Lesbian, well the girls they present as typical Heteros were never the type of girl I was, either, but everyone gay, straight, combo, whatever, should be who they want. I think Lipstick, Dyke, Twink, Bear, Tomboy, Metrosexual, Arty, Granola, and on and on ad infinitum are all fake pigeonholes people should get away from. If you're into pageants then good for them, since anyone interested should have the chance.
Why does sexual preference matter? Why is it even being discussed during a pageant? It's no one's business. I don't see the importance of it being discussed, gay or straight. It's not a porn movie, it's Miss USA. I don't remember there being a gay or straight category.
I'm with Sorka8 100%!
"it's only the lipstick approved version of lesbianism that is allowed to be shown."
Like Fernanda Rocha on the RHotOC. Who is there mostly to let Tamra pretend to be into girls to feed her bottomless need for attention.
We'll know times have changed when out lesbians are in beauty pageants and nobody gives a rat's ass, and younger people are surprised that it used to be any different.
Also, I think Jasmine is right about butches being more threatening to men due to their challenging of male privilege and traditional notions of what it means to be "male" or "female." Sometimes I wish masculinity wasn't such a fraught issue, esp. when it leads to increased attempts to "put down" women...again, we'll know times have changed when it's more important to be a good human being than to fit a particularly narrow version of a gender role.
Word Robin, word.
Moosh- I dont watch RHOC, so I dont know who those people are.
Is there an out lesbian on the show?
I watch Atlanta (of course) and BH. I was thinking of getting into one of the east coast RH shows (cause I am in love with Mob Wives and all things Jersey/Staten Island related) but I dont know if I can handle TWO RH cali shows. Those bitches make my state look soooooo bad.
Actually, there were two out gay women competing and one, Jenelle Hutcherson (the girl from Long Beach), is not what you would call a lipstick lesbian. She's got an "alternative-lifestyle haircut" as we say and a more androgynous/soft-butch style. Here's a pic from the LA times article:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/01/openly-gay-miss-california-usa-contestants-make-history.html
Jenelle is a hair dresser who apparently decided to enter after the pageant director got his hair cut by her and they talked about the pageant. Here's an article about it: http://www.autostraddle.com/lesbian-to-shake-up-miss-long-beach-pageant-with-alternative-lifestyle-haircut-119941/
This girl Mollie joined up later and was courting a reality show before this. According to this article (http://www.autostraddle.com/lesbian-pursues-the-american-dream-mollie-thomas-runs-for-miss-california-usa-122537/) she was approached by recruiting staff or something.
The skeptic in me wonders if pageant staff sought out a femme-ier more image "appropriate" lesbian to compete after Jenelle entered to divert attention. But I'll try to stay positive and appreciate that out lesbians are competing at all.
Generally I would agree with all the ladies complaining about packaging femmes up for male-consumption (and I say this as a relatively "femme-y" lesbian) but I just wanted to point out that the other contestant doesn't totally seem to fit this interpretation.
oh, and apparently Jenelle sewed her own board shorts for the swimsuit competition. amazing.
I'm w/sorka8 and crila16.
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