News

Miss California: Gay marriage answer cost me Miss USA crown

Support for Proposition 8 draws gay judge’s ire.

Christianity Today April 21, 2009

Carrie Prejean, 21, says her honest answer about whether she supports marriage by homosexuals cost her an opportunity to win Sunday’s Miss USA pageant. The question came from gay judge Perez Hilton, who apparently set her up.

In an appearance Monday on MSNBC, Hilton said he was absolutely “shocked and incredibly frustrated and disappointed” with Prejean’s stance.

“That’s not the kind of woman I want to be Miss USA,” he said. “Miss USA should represent all Americans and, with her answer, she instantly alienated millions of gays and lesbians and their friends.”

Earlier, Hilton had said on his video blog he would have run onstage and ripped the tiara off Prejean’s head had she won the title.

And the blogger would not have been the only member of the Miss USA family to go apoplectic had Prejean advanced in the competition. Keith Lewis, executive director of California’s Miss USA operations, said in a statement released to Hilton that “religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family.”

Prejean Monday said she was raised in a way that you can never compromise your beliefs and your opinions for anything.

Prejean said she has received 2,000 friend requests on Facebook since the weekend controversy began unfolding.

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