‘Makes no sense:’ Woman challenges rule banning mothers from Miss America pageants

A New York woman is trying to change the rules of major beauty pageants that prohibit mothers from competing.

Danielle Hazel’s ambitions of competing in Miss America and Miss World competitions came crashing down when she had a son at 19, making her ineligible to compete due to what she calls “discriminatory entry requirements.” Now, she’s trying to put an end to those eligibility rules.

The 25-year-old filed a complaint with the New York City Human Rights Commission on Monday in an effort to expand the participant pool.

Miss America’s eligibility requirements state that participants must be a US citizen, a single woman between the ages of 18 and 28 and have “no legal dependents.”

“This exclusion is degrading to Danielle as it is based upon the antiquated stereotype that women cannot be both a mother and be beautiful, poised, passionate, talented and philanthropic,” Hazel’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said at the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument in Central Park on Monday, the Associated Press reported.

“Being pregnant or being a parent is not a crime and should not exclude an individual from employment or business opportunities,” Allred said. “An individual’s status as a parent should not carry a stigma and no person should have to feel embarrassed, humiliated, or degraded because they have become a parent.”

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Hazel said that when she told her six-year-old son that she couldn’t compete, he replied: “These rules are stupid.”

She continued: “His sense of fairness at only six years old tells him that this is unjust and makes no sense.”

Hazel and Allred were joined by Veronika Didusenko, who was crowned Miss Ukraine in September 2018. Her reign spanned only a few days before she announced that the national beauty pageant was stripping her of her title after discovering she had a child.

At the time, Didusenko, while admitting that she had failed to provide that information to the pageant, called the rules “so archaic, so outdated, so old-fashioned.”

Stuart J Moskovitz, a lawyer for Miss America, suggested to The Independent that there was a difference between having legal dependents and being a mother.

“Danielle Hazel’s complaint, filed by Attorney Allred, is not factually accurate. There is no ban against mothers. The only ban is against potential contestants with legal dependents. In other words, if you are responsible for the daily welfare of the child, that welfare must take precedence over wishing to compete in the contest,” he said.

“The rule has nothing to do with any attack on motherhood. It is solely to protect the welfare of minors dependent on their legal guardians. That legal guardian could be someone who is the child’s mother, or it could be someone who has become the legal guardian of the child without being the mother. Someone who is a mother who has no responsibility for the child (for example, someone who gave up custody or the child for adoption, etc.) is not banned,” Moskovitz continued.

“Essentially, the complaint filed with the NYC Human Rights Commission is a false document filed with a government agency. Miss America stands apart from other such contests. Miss America is a more than century old institution that observes the highest standards of conduct, ethics, etc. That puts us in conflict sometimes with those who do not share those standards. Protecting the welfare of children is consistent with those standards,” he wrote.

The Independent has also reached out to representatives for Miss World as well as the New York City Human Rights Commission for comment.