One of the Miss USA contestants, Miss California's Carrie Prejean, said that she believed that marriage was meant to be between a man and a woman. Here's a clip of her from the pageant. She later claimed that "Out of all the topics I studied up on, I dreaded that one, I prayed I would not be asked about gay mariage. If I had any other question, I know I would have won." Well, how fortunately for her that she yes indeed received a question on the topic of gay marriage AND in fact was asked the question by celebrity-(ish) Perez Hilton who is homosexual.
This issue already has a lot of attention in recent politics and she did acknowledge that it could have been a potential topic to be asked upon. Should have studied harder, tsk tsk.
Her answer caused her to be faced with a lot of negative attention-- Perez Hilton blogged about her on his site calling her a 'dumb bitch' and went on with how her having 'half a brain' and even said he would've stormed up onto the stage and ripped her tiara off if she had won.
It amazes me that in 2009 we still manage to live in such a closed-minded society. This is exactly one of the things that's wrong with the world today. Yeah, I do believe that Miss California had every right to express HER opinion on gay marriage that "Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage." She later told Fox News that "By having to answer that question in front of a national audience, God was testing my character and faith. I'm glad I stayed true to myself." But when did we become such a religiously strict Christian society? (I'm not exactly sure what faith Prejean believes in.) In McDannell's Material Christianity, she states that Christians believe that "sexuality is God-given, homosexuality cannot be 'natural' " (pg. 217).
Still, I think that Miss California did not answer her question the way that a beauty queen should have. She wasn't asked what she thinks of same-sex marriage, she was asked if she believes that states should pass laws regarding same-sex marriage. And THAT is a completely different question than how she answered it. She was competing to be a representative of her state and country so she should have known that. Again, she definitely should have given more thought and much more carefully worded answer that didn't address whether or not she thinks same-sex marriage is wrong.
It's almost like we are going backwards; we fought so hard over the past years for our rights and beliefs, and now there are still people being told that they cannot marry because of their homosexuality. It's pretty silly that only FOUR out of fifty states make same-sex marriages legal. The other forty-six needs to realize that when religious and sacred meaning is taken away from the equation that homosexuality isn't a negative impact on our society.
Source
I do feel that Miss California does have her own rights to her opinion. However, she did express her opinion in the wrong manner. To me, Miss USA is a group of beauty pageant woman who are representing each state. So for Miss California, she was really just representing herself, not as her state. Which surprises me cause California is a pretty open state. I think the way people reacted to her statement was harsh. For Perez Hilton to call her names and basically saying shes dumb was kind of unfair. Yes, she said something that was very opinionated, but it does not make her dumb. Everyone has their right to their opinions whether they express them at the right time or the wrong time. For Miss California she may have thought she was expressing how she felt at the right time, but the way people reacted it made it seem like the wrong time. Which is true,she did not answer the question in the right way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statement that we are moving backwards as a society. It took centurys for our country to give equality to women and African Americans. This issue with gay marriage is not going to happen overnight. As much as i agree that it should, this is not how our history shows that we work. It could take another century until all states are legalizing gay marriage but it will eventually happen. Never give up on our country because we will soon see whats right and do it. On the issue of Miss California, I agree she wasn't asked if she believed in gay marriage but if it should be legalized. To some people this question cannot be answered without answering if they believe in the issue. If they don't believe in gay marriage then they won't believe in legalizing gay marriage.
ReplyDelete