Claire Buffie

Who is Claire Buffie?

Claire Buffie is a photographer and designer and former beauty queen. Selected as Miss New York 2010, she competed for the Miss America 2011 title, with the finals televised on January 15, 2011. She placed in the Top 12. She was voted into the Finals as America's Choice by winning a national voting competition between all of the contestants in which "hundreds of thousands of votes were cast" according to show host Brooke Burke. She was the first contestant to campaign for the Miss America title on a gay rights platform.

A BSU Presidential Scholar and Emens scholar, Buffie earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communications from Ball State University in 2008, with a concentration in photography and a minor in dance performance. During her academic career she received numerous awards and honors. After interning with Lois Greenfield and Macfadden Publications, she began designing professionally for movmnt magazine. She has owned and operated her own photography and design business since 2005. She began working for Apple Inc. in 2010.

Buffie competed in the Miss Indiana 2008 contest, earning second runner-up to Miss Indiana 2008 winner, Katie Stam & Miss America 2009, and was a preliminary swimsuit and interview winner. After moving to New York she competed in Miss New York 2009, winning preliminary swimsuit, evening gown and overall interview. But in 2010, after first being crowned Miss Southeast New York, Buffie won the Miss New York pageant with a platform of "Straight for Equality: Let's Talk", once again winning preliminary swimsuit and evening gown and overall interview. She is an executive board member of the New York City chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and an active volunteer in its Safe Schools Program, which helps schools reduce bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. As of 2011, she resided in New York City.