Thursday October 10, 2002
MISS AMERICA OFFICIALS WITHDRAW CENSURE OF ABSTINENCE MESSENGER
CHICAGO, October 10, 2002 (LSN.ca) - Erika Harold, Miss America 2003, yesterday told a local audience that officials have withdrawn their attempt to suppress her right to speak to teenagers about chastity.
"I don't think the pageant organizers really understood how much I am identified with the abstinence message," Miss Harold told reporters. "If I don't speak about it now as Miss America, I will be disappointing the thousands of young people throughout Illinois who need assurance that waiting until marriage for sex is the right thing to do," she said.
Miss Harold tells audiences how she was subjected to "pervasive racial and sexual harassment" by fellow students because she has some black and native ancestry, and because she rejected sexual advances at school. At the time, the principal told her, "If you'd only be more submissive like the other girls, this wouldn't happen to you," she said.
To read continuing Washington Times coverage see:
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021010-10838180.htm
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