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Miss America organization in turmoil over pageant's new, swimsuit-free direction

Gretchen Carlson's "Miss America 2.0" relaunch of the beleaguered beauty pageant is receiving sharply divided reactions from former Miss America winners and state pageant officials who are are split over the leadership and direction of the organization.

After the Miss America organization was rocked by a 2017 email scandal that led to the resignations of its top leaders, Carlson became the organization's chairwoman. The organization recently announced that the 2019 competition, to be held on Sept. 9, will eliminate the swimsuit portion and allow contestants to wear outfits other than gowns during the evening-wear portion.

Now, representatives from 22 state pageants have signed a petition calling for the resignations of the new Miss America board, including Carlson and the organization's president and CEO Regina Hopper, according to a copy of the letter provided to The Press of Atlantic City.

The petition expressed a vote of "no confidence" in the Miss America Organization's board of trustees, citing a lack of transparency and adherence to best practices.

In response to the petition, 30 former Miss America winners issued their own letter of support to The Press, saying they “fully support Gretchen Carlson (and) our unified board who are and have been working tirelessly to move our program forward."

Hopper told The Press in an interview about the negative petition that "there are always those who disagree with or find it hard to accept change."

"We welcome those who want to move forward and be a part of a revitalized program dedicated to providing scholarships and opportunities to all young women,” she said.

In a separate incident last week, the Miss Massachusetts Board of Directors apologized for a skit at the state's competition on June 30, which included a joke about the swimsuit change and #MeToo movement, and promoted one contestant, Maude Gorman, to resign.

"While I'm grateful for the opportunities that @missamerica creates for young women, I am also internally conflicted; as the #metoo movement was mocked on stage during the final competition of Miss Massachusetts," she wrote in an Instagram post. "As both a survivor, and advocate for victims rights and sexual violence on a whole, I refuse to stand idly by and simply 'let this go.'"

The Carlson-led revamp comes after a December scandal in which emails surfaced showing then-CEO Sam Haskell and others mocked winners' intelligence, looks and sex lives.

The published messages showed offensive language Haskell used to describe 2013 Miss America Mallory Hagan, describing her as "fat and gross" in one note, and joking about sleeping with her in another.

Haskell resigned Dec. 23, leading to an organizational shake-up in which the top three positions were assumed by women, as board members have continued to depart in the months since.

Miss America 1984 Suzette Charles told The Press that "things have started to unravel" in the organization's new era.

“There’s been a lot of dismay with Gretchen’s leadership," she said. "We thought she would regard this program with reverence and keep this tradition alive. The local and state level are the community that brings the whole swell of the competition here to Atlantic City. So if there’s discourse and you don’t have participants, then how will you move forward?”