Erin O’Flaherty, one of the contestants in this weekend’s Miss America pageant, wants fans to know a few things about her: She was raised on a farm; she is a trained livestock judge; and she supports suicide-prevention programs.

But in the brief, get-to-know-me videos posted on her official Miss Missouri Facebook page, there is scant mention of the main reason that she has attracted so much attention before the Miss America 2017 finale on Sunday in Atlantic City: Ms. O’Flaherty is the first openly lesbian contestant to compete in the pageant.

The 23-year-old from Missouri is being heralded as a trailblazer in the constellation of pageants, upending the notion that contestants are exploited in an old-fashioned, heterosexual-dominated forum that dictates how women should look, and what, or how little, they should wear.

“She is changing the conversation and proving to people that you can be who you are,” said Steve Mendelsohn, the deputy executive director of the Trevor Project, which works to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths. “The pageant is really about the beauty of individuals. And individuals come in all identities.”