[News] [USA] Miss Universe Organization Reacts to Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin's Resignation

[Stephanie Stevens]

AceShowbiz, USA


Miss Universe Organization Reacts to Miss Pennsylvania Sheena Monnin's
Resignation

The organization claims Monnin originally complained about its policy
regarding transgendered contestants before changing her story by
accusing the pageant of fixing the top 5 before final show.

June 06, 2012 04:16:24 GMT


Miss Universe Organization, which runs Miss USA pageant, has responded
to Sheena Monnin's accusation that the top 5 contestants of the beauty
contest were fixed before the finale show on June 3. The foundation
denied the claim, insisting that the former Miss Pennsylvania spread
false story.

In a post on her Facebook, Monnin resigned her position as Miss
Pennsylvania USA 2012, accusing the organizers of fraud. "In good
conscience I can no longer be affiliated in any way with an
organization I consider to be fraudulent, lacking in morals,
inconsistent, and in many ways trashy," so she said.

"I witnessed another contestant who said she saw the list of the Top 5
BEFORE THE SHOW EVER STARTED," Monnin began her story. "She saw a
folder lying open to a page that said 'FINAL SHOW Telecast, June 3,
2012' and she saw the places for Top 5 already filled in."

On the final night, "after the Top 16 were called and we were standing
backstage she hesitantly said to me and another contestant that she
knew who the Top 5 were. I said 'who do you think they will be?' She
said that she didn't 'think' she 'knew' because she saw the list that
morning," she continued.

"She relayed whose names were on the list. Then we agreed to wait and
see if that was indeed the Top 5 called that night. 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. That is all I know about
this."

"In my heart I believe in honesty, fair play, a fair opportunity, and
high moral integrity, none of which in my opinion are part of this
pageant system any longer. After 10 years of competing in a pageant
system I once believed in, I now completely and irrevocably separate
myself in every way and on every level from the Miss Universe
Organization."

"If this contestant would like to step forward as an eye witness and
as being the one who saw the sheet with the Top 5 already selected
before the judges ever saw the Top 16, then perhaps action can be
taken. As for me, I believe her words and I will not encourage anyone
to compete in a system that in my opinion and from what I witnessed is
dishonest."

In response, the organization issued a statement that claimed Monnin's
original reason for the withdrawal was its policy
<http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00049547.html> which allowed
transgender women to compete. "In an email to state pageant
organizers, she cited the Miss Universe Organization's policy
regarding transgendered contestants, implemented two months ago, as
the reason for her resignation," so it's explained.

"Today she has changed her story by publicly making false accusations
claiming that the pageant was fixed, however the contestant she
privately sourced as her reference has vehemently refuted her most
recent claim. We are disappointed that she would attempt to steal the
spotlight from Olivia Culpo of Rhode Island on her well-deserved Miss
USA win."

In the e-mail, Monnin reportedly said that she refused 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 moral fiber of my being. I
believe in integrity, high moral character, and fair play, none of
which are part of this system any longer."


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