A Miss America Beauty Queen Just Gave Back Her Crown After Someone Made A Joke On Stage

Maude Gorman is just 24-years-old, but she’s already accomplished quite a bit. The highlight of her recent life has been a “crowning” achievement, as she became the Miss Plymouth County beauty queen in Massachusetts. But all of that abruptly came to an end before the ceremony had even concluded and left the audience in shock. She still can barely believe what happened on that fateful night.

“While I’m grateful for the opportunities that Miss America creates for young women, I am also internally conflicted,” she wrote in an Instagram post after she gave up her crown.

Gorman was gang-raped when she was 13, a fact that she revealed as part of this entire experience. So when the emcee of the event made a joke about the #MeToo movement, she was disgusted and appalled.

The joke was part of a skit, in which someone portrayed God and asked the host why the swimsuit competition was taken out of the competition. The emcee proceeded to pick up a sign that said, “#MeToo,” and showed it to the crowd.

“As both a survivor and advocate for victims rights and sexual violence on a whole, I refuse to stand idly by and simply, ‘let this go.’ Instead, I will stand up for every individual who ever had the courage to speak out, and for every person who felt liberated by the #MeToo movement,” Gorman wrote.

The #MeToo movement first went viral back in October 2017 as a way for women to speak out about their own experiences with sexual harassment and violence. It was a direct reaction to the sexual abuse allegations made against Hollywood magnate Harvey Weinstein.

Many celebrities proceeded to come out and speak out about their own experiences with harassment. The movement empowered hundreds of thousands of women to courageously open up about some of the worst experiences in their entire lives.

“I will not allow ANYONE to take away that empowerment and liberation, or make it anything less than what it is: AMAZING,” Gorman’s post continued. “I’m disheartened by the cruel nature of several of the other titleholders backstage, who took it upon themselves to discuss that my ‘story was fake.’”

Gorman needed the courage to reveal her story, and for her colleagues to claim that her story is fake is cruel. When she was 13, 3 drunk men attacked her in a local park. She was split up from her friend, who managed to make it away in time. Gorman wasn’t so lucky, and the men raped the poor girl repeatedly.

In the time since she’s revealed her story, Gorman has experienced what many other victims of sexual abuse have. Many people try to undermine their claims or act like it’s not as big of a deal, like Gorman’s “friends” in the competition.

“Moving forward, we will review all content with future emcees and other participants prior to our show to be sure offensive or potentially offensive content is not allowed,” said The Miss America Organization in a statement on Facebook.

 

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