Miss Maryland USA professes to celebrate both the beauty and confidence of young women, promising a “fair environment in which young women have the opportunity to develop skills that will help them win in life by being their personal best in everything they do.”

But on June 1, when the beauty pageant crowned a man the winner of Miss Maryland USA, a number of the contestants felt that they had not been granted that fair and supportive environment they were promised.

The male winner goes by the name Bailey Anne Kennedy and identifies as a transgender woman. The day that he was crowned Miss Maryland USA was also the first day of Pride Month—a fact that was not lost on the contestants.

“I was shocked,” one contestant told The Daily Signal as she described how she found out that she was competing against a man. This contestant, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her privacy, will be identified as Contestant A. “I had mixed feelings. I started to think that the winner might be predetermined.”