A Florida beauty queen has claimed that she was stripped of her title after declining to sign a contract that redefines female to include individuals who have undergone s£x changes.
Kayleigh Bush, winner of Miss North Florida 2025, was crowned in August of last year before she claims her title was taken away from her in November by organizers, who have denied her claims.
She said she had expressed concerns over her contract, which she claimed violated her own religious beliefs while also raising concerns about state law.
The contract states that applicants must be female, adding that is either a biological female or ‘an individual who has fully completed S£x Reassignment Surgery’.
Represented by the Christian nonprofit group Liberty Counsel, they sent a letter advising both Miss Florida and Miss America to change the content of the contract and restore her title so she can compete in the competition, scheduled for this week.
The letter says: ‘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 s£x.
‘Bush’s ‘strongest objection’ is to how the additional definition of ‘female’ also ‘incentivizes and promotes grievous harm to the health and safety of minor boys.’
According to Liberty Counsel, the two organizations refused twice to revise the contract, opting instead to strip Bush of her title. Legal counsel representing Miss America has shot down these claims as false, providing letters of correspondence between the two and saying they never stripped her of her crown.
The contract adds: ‘Supporting medical documentation must be in the form of the certification attached, signed by the surgeon who performed the surgery and notarized, along with a copy of board certification and a current medical license.
‘No alternative gender affirming [sic] surgery will suffice as acceptable in place of a Vaginoplasty [sic].’
Liberty Counsel claimed that Bush had entered into an oral agreement with the two organizations after winning her title.
They said that at the time there was no mention that Bush ‘subscribed to this “false” definition of “female”.’
‘Thus, Miss Florida, Inc. is in apparent breach of its oral agreement with [Bush], over terms that are void under Florida law and public policy,’ they added.
According to the group, the contract contradicts Florida’s legal definition of sex, which classifies people as ‘either male or female’.
Bush said: ‘Early last August I was crowned 2025 Miss North Florida, a title I worked hard for, prayed over, and earned under the clear understanding that this was a pageant for women.
‘The rules were clear: you had to be a female to compete. That’s what was written on the website, and that was confirmed before entering. Four weeks later, everything changed.’
She said that she was handed the document after she had been crowned as Miss North Florida.
She added: ‘That contract redefined ‘female’ to include individuals who are biologically male but have undergone medical mutilating surgery.
‘That was not the agreement when I stepped onto that stage. That was not the standard I — or any of the other young women — signed up for.
‘I was told to sign it, or step down. And I couldn’t sign it. Not because I don’t have compassion, but because I have conviction.
‘I believe that biology is real, and that redefining what it means to be a woman after the fact isn’t just unfair — it’s dishonest.’
She said that what she was going through was a call for young girls to stand firm in what they believe, adding: ‘Your dignity is not up for negotiation.’
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said: ‘A contract that defines ‘female’ to include boys 14-18 who have been medically castrated is an abandonment of reality and an endorsement of harming children.
‘Kayleigh Bush should have her crown restored and these types of reprehensible contracts must be stopped.’
In a letter from legal counsel representing Miss America to the Daily Mail, they shot down the claims made by Liberty Counsel as being false.
According to the letter, lawyers representing the company had been in contact with the group over the concerns raised by Bush.
They also took aim at Bush and her statement, adding that she had not been stripped of her crown, saying: ‘Her title was never taken away.
‘Had her title been taken away, another individual would have been given the title and competed for the state title.
‘She didn’t lose the crown and no one asked her to rewrite anything, let alone the truth.’
The company added that nobody had asked her to abandon her beliefs, saying they do not negotiate individual contracts for each contestant and refuse to impede the rights of others based on an individuals beliefs.
It added: ‘You need to sign the contract. We cannot negotiate a separate contract for each contestant in each local contest in each state affiliated with the national competition.’
