"Fat" Texas Beauty Queen Sues To Reclaim Her Title

In the latest in the “Texas Beauty Queen Gained Too Much Weight, Needs To Stop Eating Tacos, Couldn’t Stop Eating Tacos, So Now She Isn’t Queen Anymore” saga, 17-year-old Domonique Ramirez is suing to regain her title — so that she may go on to compete to become Miss America, rejecting Miss San Antonio officials’ claims that when she arrived at the bikini shoot, her hips had ballooned to 40 inches.

The pageant’s president testified in front of a jury that her bikini photos were so “unusable” that even airbrushing couldn’t save them, a fact Ramirez also disputes:

“I won the swimsuit (competition),” Ramirez said of her Miss San Antonio victory in April. “So obviously I was good enough.”

Still, officials say it wasn’t about Ramirez’s measurements as much as it was about things like “chronic lateness” and “not writing thank-you notes” (as well as “blowing off her physical fitness program”).

From then on, the court room pretty much became a joke:

At one point during her testimony, she stood up to demonstrate how measurements are taken.

She said she never embarrassed the pageant by thumbing her nose at a prominent vocal coach, and during one strange line of questioning, she denied secretly being a 17-year-old bride.

Lorena Briseno, Ramirez’s mother, testified earlier that her daughter was fired two days after choosing to model wedding dresses at a bridal show instead of appearing in her crown and sash. That angered pageant leaders, Briseno said, because they felt a minor wearing a wedding gown sent an inappropriate message.

Briseno also said her daughter wasn’t married – a topic that came up when pageant attorney Ben Wallis asked her about pictures on her daughter’s Facebook page. Wallis also told Briseno he may call a witness to testify they saw Ramirez once change her relationship status to “married.”

Ramirez also claims that when she was weighed and measured by the pageant director prior to her firing, no comments were made about her size — but she noted that other pageant officials were quick to mention the highly quotable, vaguely racist, “get off the tacos” suggestion to her.