Miss Pennsylvania has stepped down from the Miss USA pageant, claiming that the competion is rigged. Pageant officials say that she just disagrees with thier desision to allow trangender contestants.
Sheen Monnin, otherwise known as Miss Pennsylvania, posted on her Facebook page Monday that she will resign from the Miss USA competition. She claims that another contestant saw a list of top 5 contestants on Sunday morning, hours before the show was broadcast:
“I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5 BEFORE THE SHOW EVER STARTED proceed to call out in order who the Top 5 were before they were announced on stage, after it was indeed the Top 5 I knew the show must be rigged; I decided at that moment to distance myself from an organization who did not allow fair play and whose morals did not match my own,” she said in the post.
Pageant organizers confirmed the post, but contend that is not the real reason she quit. They claim to have an email sent from Monnin saying that she resigning because she does not agree with the pageant’s decision to allow natural born males into the competition.
Organization officials released an email they say is from Monnin, saying, “I refuse to be part of a pageant system that has so far and so completely removed itself from its foundational principles as to allow and support natural born males to compete in it. This goes against ever (sic) moral fiber of my being.”
Monnin called the Miss Universe pageant “fraudulent” and “trashy” on the Facebook post. The oraganization’s co-owner, Donald Trump, has said that she can expect a lawsuit for her remarks.
“What we’ve authorized today is we’re going to bring a lawsuit,’’ Trump told the Today Show. “She said some really strong things. When she’s using the word ‘fraud,’ that’s pretty strong, so we’re going to be suing her on that basis. I did see her for about a second. I never felt that she had a chance, and all this is is buyer’s remorse.’’
Miss Rhode Island, Olivia Culpo, won the competition on Sunday, expressing her support for transgender contestants.