Former Miss Michigan says coming out as conservative ‘harder than coming out as openly gay’
Kathy Zhu, the former Miss Michigan winner who was stripped of her title over tweets deemed “offensive, insensitive and inappropriate,” claimed that it is more difficult to come out as conservative than gay in the United States.
Zhu, who is the vice president of the College Republicans at the University of Michigan, made the claim while doubling down on her previous remarks at an event hosted by Michigan Trump Republicans, according to MLive.com.
{mosads}“After I came out as a conservative, which I think is very hard to do nowadays – it’s harder than coming out as openly gay,” she said. “Ever since junior year, I’ve been ridiculed online, bullied online, on Twitter and Facebook. … People [told me] I was a white supremacist, even though I’m Asian. I don’t know why that’s even a thing.”
The comments from Zhu came just weeks after she was stripped of the 2019 Miss Michigan crown after the Miss World America organization had become aware of her previous social media posts.
Among other things, Zhu tweeted in 2017 that the African-American community needed to fix its own problems before criticizing others.
“Did you know the majority of black deaths are caused by other blacks?” she asked on Twitter. “Fix problems within your own community first before blaming others.”
She also reportedly tweeted in 2018 about a Muslim student group allowing people to try hijabs on.
“So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing?” she tweeted, according to the Detroit Free Press. “Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?”
The Miss World America organization reportedly told Zhu that her tweets violated a requirement of pageant contestants regarding “good character.”
Zhu, who transferred to the University of Michigan last winter, has adamantly stood by her past comments. MLive.com noted that she consistently received cheers from Michigan Trump Republicans gathered in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
“If they were to (offer the crown back) I wouldn’t want to take it,” she said. “I would rather be real about my stances and my beliefs than to than to back down and say, ‘yeah, I’ll accept this crown.’”
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