N.Y. Woman Files Complaint Against Miss America and Miss World for Barring Moms and Married from Competing

Mar. 15, 2025

A New York mother has filed a complaint against Miss America and Miss World over their requirements that a woman must be unmarried and have no children to compete.

In a second complaint, Hazel made the same accusation against the Miss America rules.

She is challenging the requirement in court so that she might one day compete, and alleged in the complaint that while she has satisfied “all of the other entry requirements” of the pageants, she “is rendered ineligible to enter because she has a son who is her legal dependent.”

Stuart J. Moskovitz, an attorney with the Miss America pageant said in a statement to PEOPLE: “There is no ban against mothers. The only ban is against potential contestants with legal dependents. In other words, if you are responsible for the daily welfare of the child, that welfare must take precedence over wishing to compete in the contest.”

“The rule has nothing to do with any attack on motherhood. It is solely to protect the welfare of minors dependent on their legal guardians,” he continued. “… Miss America stands apart from other such contests. Miss America is a more than century old institution that observes the highest standards of conduct, ethics, etc. That puts us in conflict sometimes with those who do not share those standards. Protecting the welfare of children is consistent with those standards. "

From left to right: Veronika Didusenko, Gloria Allred and Danielle Hazel.Gloria Allred

Gloria Allred

In her complaint, Hazel added that she has been “deprived of an opportunity that was extremely meaningful to her.”

“She was not merely interested in fame or in prizes, but also dreamt of having the unparalleled charitable platforms Miss World provides,” reads the complaint. “In addition, this exclusion is degrading to her, as it is based upon the antiquated stereotype that women cannot be both a mother and be beautiful, poised, passionate, talented, and philanthropic.”

Hazel said in a separate statement to PEOPLE that having her son Zion “was one of the greatest gifts of my entire life,” and she “did not want nor plan to give up” on her” dreams and aspirations” just because she “became a mother.”

“I was devastated when I later learned that having my son disqualified me from competing in some of the most respected pageants, including Miss World and Miss America,” she said.

“When I told Zion, who is now six years old, about these rules, he had an immediate gut reaction: he said that these rules are ‘stupid,’ “ she continued. “His sense of fairness at only six years old tells him that it is unjust and [makes] no sense.”

Hazel’s lawyer Gloria Allred added in a separate statement that, “being pregnant or being a parent is not a crime, and should not exclude an individual from employment or business opportunities. An individual’s status as a parent should not carry a stigma and no person should have to feel embarrassed, humiliated, or degraded because they have become a parent.”

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Didusenko said in a statement that she hoped to work with Allred and Hazel to “cancel these discriminatory rules that have existed for more than 70 years.”

“I also want to show everyone that mothers can also be philanthropists, advocates, and beauty queens,” she said.

source: people.com