In the first complaint sent to the City of New York Commission of Human Rights and obtained by PEOPLE, Danielle Hazel — who had a son at the age of 19 — claimed that the entry requirement for the Miss World America pageant is “discriminatory." In a second complaint, Hazel made the same accusation against the Miss America rules.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00I'm 19 years old, I had my son, Zion, and it was one of the greatest gifts of my entire
00:16life.
00:17I did not want or plan to give up on my dreams of being a part of a pageant and representing
00:25my country or my aspirations after I became a mother, but I actually felt more motivated
00:32because of having my son, to make him proud and to be able to represent other mothers.
00:55We believe that these eligibility requirements discriminate against women who are parents
01:07in violation of the law in New York, and in particular in violation of the New York City
01:12Ordinance which prohibits sex discrimination.
01:15My hopes is that they're able to see that the rules do need to be changed because they're
01:22not fair and they are outdated, so I hope that does get resolved, and I hope there is
01:28a resolution where mothers and people who are married are allowed to enter the pageant.