Grace Richardson won the title of Miss England 2025 this past week, making her the first out gay woman to win the competition in history. She reportedly is “in shock” following her win, which comes only five years after she came out and faced homophobic bullying in her school.
Richardson is a student and part-time model studying musical theater at the Leicester College of Performing Arts. She told the Leicester Times that she came out via TikTok five years ago and faced bullying from classmates, particularly the boys, for being “too skinny” and gay.
The final decision of Miss England ultimately was a tie-breaker, decided through the talent portion where the organizers claimed Richardson gave a “show-stopping singing and dancing performance” that earned her the win.
After her win, Richardson says, “I feel so powerful and proud of myself. My coming out story wasn’t the easiest. My very close friends and family were all very supportive. But for some reason those at school, my peers, just weren’t in the same way that my family were. It was a struggle to accept myself while a lot of people weren’t accepting me.”
She goes on to discuss the historical significance of her win. “It is important for young people in the LGBTQ community to see people representing them in all types of walks of life. I haven’t seen anyone in pageantry talk about sexuality in the way that I have, so it is important to me for them to feel seen.”
“I wasn’t expecting it to be me,” Richardson expresses after her win. “There was so many incredible girls in that top 12, and I think all of them deserved to win.”
This is an uplifting trend in recent pageantry, as the industry has finally opened up to LGBTQ+ identities. Miss International Queen 2025 was won by the Black American trans woman Midori Monet in October, and transgender women Nguyen Huong Giang was announced back in September to represent Vietnam in Miss Universe 2025.
Photo courtesy of social media
