Miss North Carolina USA Brittany Boltinhouse was stripped of her title due to conduct that violated the pageant’s strict rules.
In a statement, Miss USA chairman and CEO Thom Brodeur said the organization does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, or language that strips any person of their dignity.
Brodeur emphasized that a title represents a position of trust that must be upheld in public.
Boltinhouse, who is Hispanic, was crowned Miss North Carolina USA on June 28. She held the title for just over a month.
Brodeur stated that Boltinhouse will issue a statement of her own soon. He said her past comments were discovered in a “thorough review of recently surfaced information.”
Brodeur didn’t specify what Boltinhouse said, although he said the pageant “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia nor language that strips any person of their dignity — whoever they are.”
“This is not a policy written for a press release, it is the floor of what it means to represent this brand,” Brodeur’s statement said. “A title here isn’t a trinket. It is a position of trust, extended by an organization and accepted by a woman who agrees to carry a standard in public.”
He continued: “When that standard is broken, the title cannot continue as though nothing happened. What was brought to us was not a single moment. It reflected conduct over an extended period of time.”