First Ever Active Duty Officer Crowned Miss USA Amid Year Of Transgender Winner Controversy

For the first time ever, an active duty U.S. female Army officer was crowned Miss USA on Sunday — the same year that a trans-identifying male won the Miss Maryland beauty pageant.

On Sunday, at the Miss USA Pageant in Los Angeles, Miss Michigan, Alma Cooper, smiled as she walked the catwalk, waving to the crowd while wearing the tiara and a sash that read Miss USA, CNN reported.

Cooper — who is a second lieutenant who serves as a military intelligence officer — told judges during the Q&A portion of the pageant that “as the daughter of a migrant worker, a proud Afro Latina woman and an officer of the United States Army, I am living the American dream.”

“If there’s anything that my life and my mother have taught me, it’s that your circumstances never define your destiny: You can make success accessible through demanding excellence,” she added.

Alma Cooper, the winner of Miss USA 2024, has explained that her family values became the driving force for her success, and she is nothing but grateful to her parents. She is of Afro-Latina ethnicity, the daughter of a black father, Stacey Cooper, and a Latina mother, Oralia… pic.twitter.com/MrGzbzh2Ix

— Louise ~ PageantsNews (@PageantsNEWS) August 5, 2024

Speaking in a recent article, Cooper said, “Other contestants may be drawn to pageants for their glitz and glamor, but I see the stage as an opportunity to represent the many girls of color who often go unseen and unheard, and to inspire others to free themselves from circumstances and perceptions about who they are.”

Miss Maryland, Bailey Anne Kennedy, who identifies as transgender, was on hand at the event to compete against the 49 female pageant winners on Sunday in the Miss USA competition, as previously reported. Out of the 50 contestants, the top 20 women were chosen, and Kennedy was not one, the Baltimore Sun noted.

Kennedy won the state competition in June, calling the victory a “whirlwind because I knew it was bigger than me. I knew that it was going to mean a lot for all the LGBTQ kids out there who might feel like they don’t belong in a box — like me growing up.”

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Last year, Rikkie Kolle, a 22-year-old trans-identifying man, was crowned “Miss Netherlands” and went on to compete in the 2023 Miss Universe pageant, as previously reported.

The same year, a trans-identifying male was crowned “Miss San Francisco” and went on to compete in the Miss California pageant for the crown. Monroe Lace, a man who identifies as a woman, won the pageant in March, qualifying to compete for the 2023 Miss California title.

Related: Beauty Pageant Winner Gives Pro-Family Answer And Crowd Goes Wild