Kayleigh Bush refused to sign contract saying castrated boys were now girls and eligible to compete in pageant
A Christian organization has honored a former beauty pageant winner who was stripped of her title because she refused to sign a document asserting that it was possible for a person to change their sex.
The law firm Liberty Counsel released a statement Tuesday announcing that Kayleigh Bush was recognized by the She Leads America organization with the 2025 Young Christian Woman of Distinction award at its annual gala last week at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. She Leads America also crowned Bush as “Miss She Leads America.”
She Leads America has identified its mission as to provide “a safe platform for the exchange of ideas with a community of faith-focused, independent thinkers who support and encourage each other, networked together through deep relationships in Christ.”
Liberty Counsel has represented Bush throughout her litigation against the Miss Florida Scholarship Program and the Miss America Organization after she was stripped of her title as Miss North Florida 2025 because of her biblical beliefs about human sexuality.
In order to compete in the Miss Florida Competition, which took place from June 25-28, Bush was required to sign a contract stating her agreement that boys who had been castrated to self-identify and pose as female were eligible to participate in the beauty pageant.
While Bush won the title of Miss North Florida in September 2024, she declined to sign the contract in light of her religious beliefs about gender and sexuality and was stripped of her title two months later.
Although Liberty Counsel sent the Miss Florida Scholarship Program and the Miss America Organization a demand letter asking the beauty pageant organizations to restore Bush’s title and enable Bush to sign a contract without the language allowing males who had undergone gender transition surgeries to participate, the demands were not met.
“Kayleigh Bush is a young woman of integrity who gave up her crown rather than accept a lie that boys can be girls,” said Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver. “The Miss America Organization has lost its way and needs to return to common sense and biological reality. Miss America has always honored women until now. Forcing women to sign a contract that boys can become girls is an insult to women.”
Staver described himself as “honored to know and represent Kayleigh Bush, not because she was crowned Miss North Florida but because she would not accept a lie.” He praised her as “a shining example to young Americans who are willing to take a stand for truth.”
As explained in the demand letter, Bush objected to the participation of males in the Miss Florida pageant because of her “own religious, scientific, political and moral beliefs that sex is immutable; that individuals are born and remain either male or female; that the word ‘Female’ indeed ‘means a born female;’ and that it is offensive to Female dignity to require Females to compete against males claiming to be the opposite sex.”
“Aside from these entirely legitimate objections, Kayleigh’s strongest objection is to how this Contract’s false additional definition of ‘Female’ incentivizes and promotes grievous harm to the health and safety of minor boys. Contract Section 2.3.5.1 requires the complete castration of boys as a condition for such boys’ competition eligibility in the Miss Florida program,” the letter added.
The demand letter noted that since participation in the “Miss Teen” division of the pageant was open to girls as young as 14 and participation in the “Miss” division was open to girls as young as 18, the contract “requires (and incentivizes) the castration of boys under the age of 14 in order for such boys to be eligible to compete in the ‘Miss Teen’ division, and the castration of boys under the age of 18 in order to compete in the ‘Miss’ division.”
Florida law currently prohibits sex-change surgeries for minors.
Bush’s recognition by She Leads America with a Young Christian Woman of Distinction award was entered into the Congressional Record by Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., last week. McClain characterized Bush as “a modern-day Esther” because she “is willing to speak when the culture demands silence.”
“Her story reminds us that courage is contagious, truth is not negotiable, and that no earthly crown compares to the one given by Christ,” McClain added. “Today, we honor Kayleigh Bush — not just as the Canceled Crown, but as a living testimony of 1 Timothy 4:12: ‘Let no one look down on you because of your youth, but be an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.’’’
Several other recipients of the Young Christian Woman of Distinction award were also mentioned by McClain on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives last week. Additional honorees this year include actress Alexa PenaVega, White House Faith Office Director Jenny Korn and United States Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
