“Many victims of sexual harassment believe what is said about them, and they become very promiscuous. When they’re called a whore, a slut, they think, ‘That’s what I want to be,’ and so they engage in a pattern of self-destruction. l took the opposite approach.”

—Miss America ’03 Erika Harold, The Washington Times, 10.08.02. The beauty queen took pains to clear up confusion at the National Press Club about why she preaches abstinence-only in her platform of teen-violence prevention. She also declared that she would not be “silenced” by pageant officials “bullying” her to check the chastity chat at the door. Said officials, who last encountered AIDS crossfire when Kate Shindle (’98) crusaded for condoms and needle exchange, denied censoring the self-proclaimed virgin.