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Who is Kayleigh Bush? Beauty queen refused to sign Miss America contract over transgender rights
Kayleigh Bush, crowned Miss North Florida in 2024, criticized the Miss America Organization’s gender identity policy and refused to sign the contract.
Kayleigh Bush, the beauty pageant queen, has garnered attention after publicly criticizing the Miss America Organisation’s updated policy on gender identity.
In an interview with TMZ, Bush said she was forced to walk away from her title of Miss North Florida because she refused to sign a revised contract from the organisation.
She was crowned Miss North Florida in September 2024.
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Who is Kayleigh Bush?
Kayleigh Bush won the Miss North Florida title, a regional competition that feeds into the national Miss America system.
Weeks later, Bush said she was presented with a revised contract that expanded the definition of “female” to include those born female or individuals who have fully completed a certain gender reassignment procedure.
Bush and her family argued they entered the pageant believing it was exclusively for biological females.
“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 said, detailing the contract discussions.
Bush and her mom immediately flagged the contract and got on a call with the Miss America organization. Bush said, “Weeks and weeks and weeks of pleading with them, sending videos, sending letters, emails, through Liberty Counsel because they picked up my case."
She said the organization just denied her requests, and they later “doubled down" on their decision.
Bush ultimately refused to sign the contract and told TMZ, “I was unwilling to agree that little boys can become girls, and I took a stand against the Miss America organization and lost my crown as a result of that.”
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Miss America's updated rules and statement
According to a Miss America representative, Bush "retained her crown" but "simply did not go forward because she refuses to sign the contract every other contestant signed," refuting Bush's claim to TMZ.
The updated rules of the Miss America Organization for the contestants, which were highlighted in Bush's contract is that they must be "a female," between the ages of 18 and 28, single, childless, and U.S. citizens. A "female" is defined by the regulations as "a born female or an individual who has fully completed Sex Reassignment Surgery."
