A lawyer for beauty queen Brittany Boltinhouse, dethroned as Miss North Carolina USA last week, is threatening legal action, claiming the actions of pageant organizers were “wrongful and unjustified”.
The attorney, Patrick Mincey, described the removal of her title and crown “another troubling example of cancel culture”.
Boltinhouse, 27, was stripped of the title after event organizers said her conduct had violated Miss USA standards “over an extended period of time” – but did not specify how she had violated its policies.
The North Carolina news outlet NCBeat reported that Boltinhouse’s resurfaced social media posts showed her freely using the N-word under the username Sosa the Stallion between 2017 and 2019.
Boltinhouse won the title in June and was preparing to represent North Carolina at the 75th annual Miss USA pageant in Miami later this month.
Organizers said in a statement that the decision to remove Boltinhouse “was not made lightly”. The first runner-up, Myla Hadley, has been named Miss North Carolina USA 2026.
“It followed a thorough review of recently surfaced information and was based on the totality of the circumstances and our responsibility to preserve the integrity of the Miss North Carolina USA title and the values of our organization.”
Thom Brodeur, president and CEO of Miss USA, said that the brand “does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia, nor language that strips any person of their dignity – whoever they are”.
Mincey said in an Instagram video on Monday that his firm had evidence his client, who is Mormon, was “targeted because of her Christian faith and her conservative political views”, Mincey said.
Mincey said his firm had obtained recorded statements of pageant officials acknowledging there was no “legitimate or legal basis” for the decision to strip Boltinhouse, who would have been the third Latina and first Honduran woman to represent North Carolina at Miss USA, of her state title.
Mincey, who did not lay out specific allegations of religious or racial bias, called Boltinhouse the “very best of the American dream” and pointed to her background as a daughter of immigrants who grew up in rural North Carolina and how, as a pageant newcomer, she won four of five awards at the June Miss North Carolina USA.
Boltinhouse told the Carolina Journal: “I believe I was stripped of my title because of my political stance and my belief system as a conservative Christian woman.
“I’m proud of my faith, I’m proud of my standards, I’m a proud conservative woman, but Christian woman, a God-fearing woman,” she said.
“Every teenager has made a mistake; every person has made a mistake,” she added. “I’m here to talk about the woman I am today, things may have happened a decade ago, but I am the hardworking woman who stood up there and won Miss North Carolina USA fair and square.”
Boltinhouse claimed pageant organizers had not offered her a clear reason for being dethroned: “Honestly, I don’t know; I wasn’t really given anything.”
A Blaize Productions, license holder for Miss North Carolina USA, told The News & Observer that the reasons “were clearly shared and expressed” to Boltinhouse.
Mincey said Boltinhouse had “earned the respect and admiration of millions who support her. And one thing is for certain: Brittany Boltinhouse will not be canceled.”
