'It's changed my life completely': Miss Missouri 'excited' to be first openly gay Miss America contestant
- Erin O'Flaherty, 23, was crowned Miss Missouri on June 18
- She came out at 18 and is the first openly gay Miss America candidate
- She says she's 'excited' to represent the LGBT community at the pageant
- And she's making suicide awareness, not sexuality, her campaign platform
- O'Flaherty hopes her story will inspire gay and straight kids alike
The new Miss Missouri has spoken about how excited she is to be the first openly gay candidate for Miss America in the pageant's 95-year history.
Erin O'Flaherty, 23, was crowned Miss Missouri on June 18, putting her in the running for the title of Miss America.
And now she's thrilled to have the chance not just to represent LGBT people in the long-running competition, but also to raise awareness of suicide, she told Good Morning America Friday.
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Making history: Erin O'Flaherty (pictured being crowned on June 18 by 2015 Miss Missouri McKensie Garber, rear, and 2016 Miss Missouri's Outstanding Teen Christina Stratton, right) is the first openly gay Miss MIssouri
'Excited': In an interview with Good Morning America, O'Flaherty, 23, said she was 'excited' to represent LGBT people in the competition and to be in the running for the first openly gay Miss America
O'Flaherty, who came out at the age of 18, told host Robin Roberts her victory at this month's Miss Missouri is 'certainly making history', though she added: 'I’m not sure I set out to do that.'
'I am the first openly gay Miss Missouri and contestant to head to Miss America,' she continued, 'so I am excited about that. But mainly I’m excited to represent the LGBT community.
'We’re underrepresented in public in positions of influence. So I’m excited to take that on and I hope that my presence will help with visibility for the community.'
But O'Flaherty has chosen not to make LGBT activism the focus of her campaign, which is the awareness-raising portion of a potential Miss America's duties.
Instead, she has found a topic that is important both inside and outside the LGBT community: suicide prevention.
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'Suicide prevention is something that I certainly hope to champion throughout this entire year,' she said.
O'Flaherty added that she will promote the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, but is also going to work 'closely' with The Trevor Project - a suicide prevention hotline for LGBT youth.
That's an area that requires particular focus, she said.
'LGBT youth are actually up to eight times as likely to commit suicide as compared to their straight peers if they come from an unaccepting environment,' she explained.
'So I’m really excited to partner with them and I hope it will be a great year of social change.'
Competitors: O'Flaherty (center) is joined by runners-up (l-r) Brittany Sears (third runner-up), Audrain Jennifer Davis (first runner-up), Katie Moeller (second runner-up) and Mikaela Carson (fourth runner-up)
It gets better: O'Flaherty, who came out at the age of 18, said she thought her story - about embracing who you are, and benefiting from it - would speak to everyone, LGBT or not
But while these issues are close to her heart she hopes that she won't be known solely for her sexuality. And she believes her story will speak to everyone.
'I think what my message really is, is that I had dreams and goals and I was very scared at first to become who I am,' she said. 'But once I stepped into who I was is when I became most successful.
'My message to all young people out there who have a dream but may be a little scared, is that no matter what obstacles are in your way,' she continued, 'it does get better.'
And when asked about her plans to become Miss America, O'Flaherty remained humble.
'It's always a great thing to have a bigger goal,' she enthused, 'but if (I'm not selected), I am just so excited to be Miss Missouri and to represent the Miss America Organization... it's changed my life completely.'
Although O'Flaherty is the first openly lesbian woman to make it into the running for Miss America, she's not the first to try.
In 2012, Mollie Thomas attempted to become the first openly gay Miss California. And in 2013 Analouisa Valencia tried to do the same for South Carolina; her platform was promoting the Special Olympics.
Neither of them won their respective competition.
Life-changing: O'Flaherty said that whether she became Miss America or not, winning the Miss Missouri competition had changed her life 'completely'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3668864/It-s-changed-life-completely-Miss-Missouri-excited-openly-gay-Miss-America-contestant.html#ixzz4DNFTztYe
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