Miss America clarifies contestants must be ‘naturally born female’ after gender flap

The Miss America organization emphasized that entrants must be female to compete in the nation’s most famous pageant, updating its eligibility language on sex after being accused of opening the door to male contestants.

A pageant spokesperson said Monday that the policy wording was revised earlier this year to clarify that a contestant must be a “naturally born female,” but that women born with a condition marked by ambiguous genitalia, also known as intersex, may also compete after undergoing corrective surgery.

“The current eligibility policy as to gender was formally updated in the second half of 2024 and was revised again in 2026 to ensure consistency, transparency, and respect for all individuals who meet the qualifications to compete,” said Mallory Hudson, communications manager for Miss America HQ, in an email to The Washington Times.

“This update was developed with legal guidance and reflects our ongoing commitment to fairness and inclusion,” she said. “Specifically, our participation policy affirms eligibility for Intersex females, which are those born with female chromosomes, but non-conforming genitalia.”

The statement came after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned in a Friday letter that the Miss America organization and Miss Florida may have violated state law against deceptive business practices by representing themselves as events for women.

“These organizations cannot operate under the false and misleading title of ‘Miss’ if indeed they are open to male participants,” said Mr. Uthmeier in his letter to pageant directors. “Failure to take corrective steps may result in enforcement action.”

He cited the pageant’s yearlong dispute with Kayleigh Bush, who won the Miss North Florida title in 2024 but was blocked from the Miss Florida pageant because she refused to sign a contract allowing contestants who have “completed Sex Reassignment Surgery [sic] via Vaginoplasty.”

Taking up her cause was the conservative Liberty Counsel, which accused Miss America of promoting “false gender ideology” by opening the pageant to “gender-confused males.”

Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel president and founder, said Monday he was pleased that the organization “has finally come to its senses and revised its contract to remove the ridiculous statement that a boy can be a girl.”

“Miss America now knows what a woman is — a common sense understanding that Kayleigh Bush knew instinctually,” said Mr. Staver in a statement. “Miss America should now reinstate the benefits of Bush’s crown, including the scholarship that she rightfully deserves.”

Taking issue with his characterization was Stuart Moskovitz, attorney for Miss America, who said that the pageant didn’t change its eligibility criteria, but rather revised the contract language months ago “to avoid further confusion.”

“In fact, to eliminate this unwarranted attack on Miss America in the future, we have already altered our contract to clarify what was always intended, that a person is a woman only if born with two x chromosomes,” said Mr. Moskovitz in his Friday reply to Mr. Uthmeier.

He said the contract that Ms. Bush refused to sign referred only to female contestants with an intersex condition, not males.

“If a person has two x chromosomes, she is a biological woman, regardless of the rare circumstance in which she is born with unmatched genitalia,” said Mr. Moskovitz. “If the woman corrects that anomaly, she is permitted to compete.”

Those born with a Disorder of Sexual Development known as 46,XX are genotypic females whose external genitalia may be male or ambiguous, an anomaly typically treated with surgery and hormones.

Without the clause, Mr. Moskovitz said that “someone born with two x chromosomes, biologically a woman, could compete with male genitalia. Miss America has the absolute right to prevent that from happening.”

The revised contract states: “Sex. The Applicant must be a naturally born Female. ‘Female’ means being born female or born an intersex female individual (defined as one born with two x chromosomes with nonconforming genitalia) who has fully completed Sex Reassignment Surgery via Vaginoplasty with supporting medical documentation and records.”

The previous contract stated: “Sex. The Applicant must be a Female. ‘Female’ means a born female or an individual who has fully completed Sex Reassignment Surgery via Vaginoplasty (from male to female) with supporting medical documentation and records.”

Mr. Moskovitz called on Mr. Uthmeier to issue a retraction, saying “you have unfairly maligned Miss America by deliberately publicizing your attack before learning the truth from us.”

The flap resurfaced in February, when Ms. Bush called the situation “heartbreaking” in an interview with TMZ, saying that Miss America “can’t even define what a woman is.”

“I was asked to sign a contract that was different than the first one that I had agreed to because they had changed it four weeks after I rightly won,” she told TMZ. “So I didn’t lose my crown because I broke a rule, I lost the crown because I was unwilling to rewrite the truth.”

The Miss America organization denied removing her title or taking away her $500 scholarship.

 

“To be clear, she was not stripped of any title, nor was any scholarship removed — those claims are false and appear to have been made to attract attention,” said Ms. Hudson. “She is no longer eligible to compete due to her defamatory statements about the organization.”

The dispute comes with transgender contestants in beauty pageants on the rise, winning at least a half-dozen international and U.S. competitions over the last five years.

Males who identify as women took the titles of Miss Nevada USA in 2021 and Miss Maryland USA in 2024, allowing them to compete for Miss USA, the Miss America pageant’s chief competitor. Neither of the transgender contestants won the Miss USA crown.

No transgender entrant is believed to have won a Miss America state or national title, although one such contestant did win a feeder event.

Brian Nguyen, 19, was named Miss Greater Derry in 2022, a preliminary pageant for Miss New Hampshire, but doesn’t appear to have competed for the state crown.