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Age discrimination? Miss Delaware "too old" to win pageant
Quote:
DOVER, Del. — A new Miss Delaware was crowned Thursday after the one selected earlier this month got the boot — for being too old.
Brittany Lewis, 24, originally the contest's first runner-up as Miss Wilmington, got the sparkly crown Thursday night in a brief ceremony at the Dover Downs Hotel Casino.
With her new title comes scholarship money, a year's contract as Miss Delaware and a September shot at Miss America in Atlantic City — all lost by Amanda Longacre, also 24.
The Miss America Organization website says contestants must be 17 to 24 years old.
Longacre will turn 25 in October.
Numerous calls to officials at the national and state organizations seeking comment were not returned Thursday.
Longacre won the title June 14, but was disqualified because of her age.
"I feel like I'm being erased," Longacre said Thursday, fighting tears.
A representative of the state contest recruited her to compete, she said, and her birth certificate and driver's license, along with her resume bearing her birth date, repeatedly were submitted as she competed for Miss Pike Creek, then Miss Delaware.
"And it was verified with a director that I was eligible to compete, as long as I was 24 at the Miss America pageant," said Longacre, who turns 25 on Oct. 22, after the national pageant.
But Longacre said Miss Delaware officials repeatedly approved her for the local and state competitions.
She said they told her that, as long as she was no older than 24 at the time of the Miss America competition in September, she was "verified to compete."
"I competed on the local and state level and even signed my national contract and it was notarized and no one said anything to me and it was all notarized with my birthday on the contract," she said. "I gave them all the proper documents."
Then, last Tuesday, Longacre said pageant officials sat her down unceremoniously and told her they had bad news and said she was disqualified because of her age.
She said they told her the national contest says Miss America can't be older than 24 during her year with the crown.
Longacre said she also has to forfeit about $11,000 in scholarships — from the local and state competitions.
Longacre said she held fundraisers for the state organization and suspended her master's degree studies in social work because she was required to take a year off to serve as Miss Delaware.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...-old/11449685/
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