Ahead of the August 24 finale of the Ms. America pageant, 29-year-old Ms. Nevada Katie Williams was stripped of her crown for breaching social media protocols, reports nbcnews.com.
But the US combat veteran who holds the rank of Sergeant First Class in the US Army National Guard, and a Trump sympathiser, is not going away quietly alleging she was targeted for her support of President Donald Trump.
Pageant organisers say Williams’ failure to separate political activism from her pageant persona — not her specific support of Trump is what led to her dismissal from the pageantry as carried by online portal NBC news.
In a series of Facebook posts, Williams wrote among others “I feel like if I have more liberal views and less conservative views then this wouldn’t even be an issue,” she explained adding “she (Jeske) assured me that that was not the case. And yet as soon as I turn around there are posts about the Human Rights Campaign, which are great. I’m all for the Human Rights Campaign. But for them to not say anything about that and then for them to criticize me for supporting my sitting president? I couldn’t even believe it.”
A statement on Ms. America’s website claimed that Williams was told to keep her political commentary limited to personal social media pages. And if she wanted to talk politics, she should create a separate one for pageant-related postings. Even here, Ms. Williams contends after creating the additional page to house issues relating to the pageantry, a pageant official still screen shot posts from her personal page leading to her being asked to delete certain images and words.
But Ms. America CEO Susan Jeske stated while Williams did create a second pageant-related Facebook account, the contestant’s Trump-filled page still had plenty of images and mentions of the Ms. America competition.
“Katie Williams is distorting the facts,” according to a Ms. America statement. “All the pageant asked of Ms. Williams, in writing, is to keep separate social media accounts.”
President Trump, who emerged as the 45th president of the United States, has nearly as many supporters as detractors. His confrontational style and no-holds-barred approach even with fellow heads-of-state and other notable leaders have not been welcomed by all. Perhaps, this explains why the Ms. America pageant organisers wished for the social media posting by the queens would be devoid of political activism.
Despite the contestation between pageant organisers and the former Ms. Nevada, the pageant’s final came off at The Queen Mary in Long Beach, California last Saturday.
When it concluded, Miss West Coast JoAnna Hairabedian, was crowned the ultimate winner from over 36 hopefuls wanting to be Ms. America.
