Miss America, Miss USA are not the same thing

In her May 10 letter (“Hooray for free speech”), Kathryn Bass references the Miss America Organization in her comments about the controversy over Miss California’s gay-marriage statement. However, having once volunteered with the MAO on a local level, I would like to respectfully point out that Miss America actually had nothing to do with this situation.

To clarify, the Miss America Organization is an all-volunteer, nonprofit scholarship program in which the contestants are evaluated as much, if not more, on their scholastic achievements and community service than the traditional pageant categories. Each year its contestants receive more than $40 million in scholarships on the local, state and national level to further their educations.

The recently televised pageant was NOT the Miss America Pageant. It was the Miss USA Pageant, which is owned by Donald Trump as one of his many for-profit business ventures. It is a preliminary to the Miss Universe Pageant, also owned by Mr. Trump. Therefore, Miss USA and Miss America are not the same event, nor does one operate under the umbrella of the other. There is simply no direct connection between the two.

I do applaud Ms. Bass and the original writer, Mr. Snodgrass, for recognizing that this is a freedom of speech issue. With that in mind, I can safely say that the MAO respects the right of any contestant to speak her mind on almost any topic; and its judges, from the smallest local pageant right up to the national finals, are specifically instructed on the importance of separating the competition from their own personal and/or political agendas.