FEATURED JOBS
The issue of same-sex marriage is a complicated enough one without having idiots getting involved to stifle our freedom to express what we believe in, or without the Politically-Correct police swooping down on us.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the recent controversy involving a Miss USA contestant and Perez Hilton, the celebrity blogger and gay activist. It seems Mr. Hilton, who served as a judge at the pageant last weekend, had a decidedly pointed question for Miss California, a.k.a. Carrie Prejean, about whether she supports same-sex marriages.
Ms. Prejean did something that’s getting to be pretty rare in American life – she said how she really felt.
In a respectful, gracious way, she replied, “I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman—no offense to anybody out there. But that’s how I was raised. And that’s how I think that it should be, between a man and a woman.”
Everyone agrees that the candid response likely cost Ms. Prejean—who was the runner-up—the Miss USA crown, including the young woman herself. Meanwhile, Perez Hilton has gone on just about every TV talk show that will have him, screaming bloody murder about this woman and basically accusing her of extreme homophobia and sectarian myopia.
Furthermore, other pageant judges have criticized Ms. Prejean for not making her response more parve and for not hitting that fastball right down the middle, to not offend anyone. (How lame.)
“I am so disappointed in Miss California representing my country,” Mr. Hilton ranted on a video blog on his Web site. “Not because I believe in gay marriage, but she doesn’t inspire and she doesn’t unite.”
(Hold on? Miss USA is supposed to inspire and unite us? Especially about something as complex and potentially divisive as same-sex marriage? Isn’t Miss USA just supposed to be a well-poised babe who looks swell in a bikini and doesn’t – usually—trip on a runway? Isn’t the whole thing a bit of an annual charade?)
Anyway, on a morning talk show the other day, Mr. Hilton also said, “There were various other ways she could have answered that question, and still stayed true to herself without alienating millions of people.”
So let’s get this straight, Senator McCarthy: she basically should’ve lied or fudged her answer, just to make everyone happy, to be able to snag the crown?
Look, I don’t like beauty pageants much, and I don’t happen to agree with Ms. Prejean about her views on same-sex marriage. But I think her stance on this matter has become irrelevant here. Something bigger is going on. She is entitled to her opinion – one that is shared by millions and millions of Americans, by the way, for a variety of reasons – and I don’t appreciate anyone who says she’s not.
To use a timeworn cliché (and I say this as the proud son of a World War II veteran), American soldiers fought for Carrie Prejean’s right to answer that question.
To say she is not entitled to her opinion is an un-American impulse, one that is embraced far too often these days by liberals and conservatives alike. We’ve gotten so caught up in our narrow agendas that we’ve lost a sense of mutual respect, graciousness and acknowledgment in our discourses. I might disagree strongly with you, it might even infuriate or repulse or alienate me, but I’m still willing to hear what you have to say.
At best, Perez Hilton is standing up for gay rights, certainly a noble cause, but at worst he’s using this moment in the spotlight to simply augment his fame. Whatever. But where I come from, I always heard that if you ask someone a question, don’t be shocked if you don’t like the answer.
When discussing this matter of Perez Hilton vs. Miss California the other day, a friend – half-jokingly, I suspect—said to me, “Oh, you’re just on her side because she’s really hot!” But it’s not about being on sides, or the banality of beauty pageants. It’s about being allowed to express yourself, which by the way is something that folks in quite a few corners of this planet still aren’t allowed to do.
Comments (2)