TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (CBS12) — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is accusing the Miss America organization, based in Wellington, and the Miss Florida organization of possibly breaking state law after a contestant says she lost her title for refusing to sign a policy allowing transgender women to compete.
In a letter sent Friday, Uthmeier said the groups may have violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Practices Act by promoting the pageants as competitions for women while also allowing transgender women to enter.
The dispute centers on Kayleigh Bush, who says her Miss North Florida 2025 title was revoked and she lost her scholarship after she declined to sign a contract stating contestants could be female or someone who had completed sex reassignment surgery from male to female and provided supporting medical records.
Uthmeier argued that the organizations advertised the competitions as being for women only, while allegedly allowing what he described as men to compete.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Uthmeier wrote that Bush “was told to sign a contract that forced her to compete against men” and called the pageants’ advertising “misleading” and potentially in violation of Florida law.
“Both organizations made statements advertising that only females can compete, when in fact men are apparently also permitted to compete,” Uthmeier wrote.
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He gave both groups until May 1 to “take corrective action” or potentially face enforcement action.
In the letter, Uthmeier said Miss America and Miss Florida misled Bush and other women in Florida and called on both organizations to bar transgender women from competing in their pageants.
The letter argues the issue is not just about Bush, but about how the organizations market their competitions to women across Florida. Uthmeier said Miss America and Miss Florida “made false and misleading representations” by promoting the pageants as women-only competitions while allegedly permitting transgender women to participate. He also said neither organization’s public-facing websites disclosed that policy.
“By misleading Kayleigh and other Florida women, Miss America and Miss Florida undermine the values they claim to advance — female well-being,” Uthmeier wrote. “Both organizations should disallow men from competing in their pageants.”
In response, Miss America HQ fired back on X, demanding a retraction, and writing, “perhaps you should get your facts right before you defame our organization.”