"The Kayleigh Bush Story" is a new video from American Family Studios (AFS). It is part of American Family Association's (AFA) "The Impact Series," a series of faith-centered documentaries about individuals influencing culture for Christ.
Maize Warren is a producer and editor at AFS, and the director of the Bush documentary. She believed Bush’s story would represent AFA’s goal to encourage Christians to take a stand regardless of the cost.
“Kayleigh knew that not capitulating to the transgender ideology that Miss America was espousing in their contract would most likely end her pageant career. She did it anyway, and we applaud her for that,” says Warren. “'The Impact Series' is meant to share stories of courage in hopes of inspiring courage within the church, and I think Kayleigh’s story will do just that."
Bush started competing in scholarship pageants at 15 years old, and despite being a tomboy at heart, she won her first pageant and became Miss Orange Blossom in 2023. The Christian teen saw the contests as a way to witness to and encourage other girls.
“A main goal going in there isn't to win, it's to help show girls that their value, their worth, is in Christ, their Lord, their Father, and they can't find it in beauty and hair or in makeup or any of these worldly items,” Bush says.
In 2024, she entered and won the Miss North Florida 2025 contest (featured right, in the middle), which at the time fed into the Miss America contest. However, a few weeks into her reign, the organizers changed the rules.
“In the middle of the photo shoot, I was pulled out, and I was asked to sign a contract. ‘The applicant must be female. Female means a born female or an individual who has fully completed sex reassignment surgery,’” Bush states.
She says that conflicted with her moral standards. Promoting the castration of minor boys is unsafe, she says, it's not fair, it's dangerous. She believes that biology is real and that no boy is born in the wrong body. She pushed back in a plead video to the directors and Miss America organization.
“Today, I'm standing to preserve sisterhood, the foundation of Miss America, but how can it be a sisterhood if the door is open to brothers?” Bush said in the video.
For weeks, Bush did not receive a response until, finally, she was called into a Zoom meeting with the pageant organizers. No matter what she said, though, they stood firm.
“Sign the contract or step down, and so I declined to sign, resulting in the loss of my title, any scholarship opportunities and my microphone to promote my mission,” Bush says.
She says God is using that decision for his glory.
More of her story can be heard at afa.net/impact.
