Harold has made clear her political ambitions. Staunchly opposed to abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, she has said she will probably run as a Republican for governor or for the Senate, and ultimately for president. Her Miss America bio says she plans to work with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on her platform.

After her National Press Club appearance earlier this month, Miss America met with Attorney General John Ashcroft, Surgeon General Richard Carmona and Education Secretary Rod Paige. The Department of Education's press office said an aide who attended most of the meeting didn't hear "talk of abstinence" while there, that Harold and Paige discussed bullying and harassment prevention efforts in America's schools. However, reports indicate chastity will slip into policy discussions in time.

Bob Harold, Erika's father, told the News-Gazette before last week's public spat that his daughter "had to take on the new platform [of youth violence]," but that she would "eventually integrate both issues."

Erika, in her interview with the News-Gazette, suggests the priority of her two passions. "Sometimes you take flak for what you say, but if you really want to see teen pregnancy rates decline and violence decrease you have to stand up for what you believe in," she said.

To the Daily Illinois, she called Miss America, "a job opportunity of a lifetime ... to get the opportunity to travel around the world and speak to young people about issues that are important, and to be able to talk to policy makers in terms of making decisions that are really going to impact lives of young people."

Immediately after her Miss America win, Harold reportedly began organizing the other beauty queens to advocate sexual abstinence. Before that, according to the letter of recommendation from Project Reality, Harold helped Project Reality "connect with over 20 pageant titleholders from across the country who have advocated a similar platform [sexual abstinence]."

In fact, Harold and 11 other beauty queens went to Capitol Hill in April to push for more abstinence-only funding and, according to the Family Research Council, to participate in a weekend "boot camp" on politics, lobbying and media training. According to Project Reality, the crowned virgins ultimately were instrumental in helping pass welfare reform reauthorization of more abstinence-only funds, which came after the defeat of two amendments calling for abstinence programs to include medically accurate information and for state flexibility with abstinence curriculum.

Opposition to the measure increasing abstinence-only funds has come from nearly 100 youth, health and civil rights groups who signed a letter to President Bush asking him to reconsider abstinence-only funding. The emergence of Miss America as a glittering symbol for premarital chastity is a setback for these activists.

Tamara Kreinin, president of Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States said, "Bottom line, we respect anyone's choices for their own lives. But it's cause for concern when someone with a lot of notoriety, especially with young people, advocates a position that can cause harm to their health and well-being."

Adds Wilson of Rutgers University Network for Family Life Education, which publishes the popular Sex, Etc. Web site for teens, "The chance to give all young people the opportunity to be responsible goes out of the window when Miss America starts using her own personal choice as the yardstick for sexual behavior for every teen in the United States."

Laurel Martinez, 20, a volunteer for Scarleteen, a Web site founded to counter the abstinence-only movement by providing comprehensive sexual health education, and which includes moderated message boards, said Harold's stance on abstinence "is not only unrealistic and intolerant, it is dangerous."

Adds Martinez, "At Scarleteen, we spend the majority of our time answering questions that could easily be addressed in a comprehensive sexuality curriculum. Due to lack of funding for any program which is not abstinence-based, teens are not being taught even the fundamentals of taking care of themselves."

James Wagoner, director of Advocates for Youth, which supports a more comprehensive Family Life Education Act still in the House, hopes that research, and the support of education and health professionals, will overcome the effects of Erika Harold's polished politicking.

"America's leading scientific body, the Institute of Medicine, has called abstinence-only programs 'poor fiscal and public health policy,'" he said. "With all due respect to the current Miss America, I think that statement carries more weight than her personal views when it comes to how we should address the 10,000 cases of sexually transmitted disease, the 2,400 pregnancies, and the 55 new cases of HIV infection which occur among teens in the U.S. each and every day."

At this point, it hardly matters just how much the Miss America judges knew about Harold's primary political passion or whether they attempted to silence her. Harold is America's beauty queen, a bright, beautiful and poised 22-year-old who will use her position to promote abstinence unless married -- most likely with the help of like-minded politicos such as Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. And if she is as successful with her bid for office as she was in her reach for the tiara, Harold, an unabashed Christian conservative and perhaps the most famous virgin since Britney Spears, just might become president one day, not just queen of the new sexual revolution.

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