Well ,looky here.
I am not a beauty pageant kind of person.
You can dress them up and scream “SCHOLARSHIP Pageant” all you want, but until the day a mousy, flat-chested physicist with glasses, an overbite, and a Mensa IQ wins (or a black woman with really dark skin, natural hair, and a body shape that does not adhere to the Caucasian Supermodel beauty mold)…………………sorry, it’s still just a beauty pageant with scholarships tacked on, and I don’t find them to be of any particular use.
The last time South Carolina became famous for one of its pageant contestants, it was when this happened:
And, like, such as, Carrie Upton became an internet sensation who wound up on that US American show Tosh.0 looking for like, such as, a web redemption in South Africa and the Iraq.
Such as.

Anyhoo………. my Conservative Christian GOP-TeaParty-loving state is about to make some history again.
Meet Analouisa Valencia.

She is the reigning Miss Lyman, South Carolina, and in July she will compete for the Miss South Carolina crown.
What’s so special about that, you ask?
Well, aside from being bi-racial (her mother is black, her father is Mexican), she is also a very out-of the-closet lesbian.
IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
A state that still has sodomy laws in the books, banned same-sex marriage, and allows for discrimination against LBGT people in housing and employment, and also offers no hate-crime protections.
Ms. Valencia, a student at Spartanburg Community College who plans to pursue a business degree at the University of South Carolina, came out in the ninth grade and took her girlfriend Tamara to her Senior Prom.
Do you know what kind of balls that takes in a fucked up Tea Bagger state like South Carolina?
Holy shit.
BALLS, man.
Valencia says she is quite prepared to answer whatever questions judges might throw at her with poise and grace, and she hopes to use the platform, if she wins, to champion rights for special needs people ( she is a Special Olympics Gymnastics coach) as well as for minorities and the LBGT community.
I wish her all the luck in the world, and if they broadcast it, I will tune in.
Win or lose, she is blazing a trail I hope others will follow, if pageants are their thing.







